Blackburn tops list of top buy-to-let hotspots

London, 26 September 2016 – Blackburn has been named the top area for greatest rental yield growth in the latest Buy-to-Let Index from online mortgage lender LendInvest.

The latest instalment of the Buy-to-Let Index focuses on which postcode areas in England and Wales have seen average rental yields increase by the largest margin over the 12 months between August 2015 and July 2016.

• Interactive map: details average house price, rental yield, universities and student population for each postcode area in England and Wales. Embeddable link here.
• Table: embeddable table of top student postcode areas attached

Key findings

• Blackburn in Lancashire took top spot, after average rental yields rose from 4.13% to 5.69% – an increase of an astonishing 37.8%. Blackburn is also the cheapest area within the Top 10 for property buyers, with average house prices of just £95,000.
• It was followed by Carlisle, which has seen rental yields rocket by 36.5%, with Gloucester taking third spot with a 19.4% rise in average rental yields.
• The table below shows the top 10 buy-to-let hotspots, all of which have seen average rental yields rise by at least 10%.

• LendInvest’s new Buy-to-Let Index also highlights the buy-to-let coldspots – those postcode areas which have seen average rental yields fall the most over the 12-month period between August 2015 and July 2016.
• Durham topped the coldspot table, with average rental yields having crashed by 34.2% over the 12 months from 7.09% to 4.67%, followed by Chester and Croydon.

Christian Faes, Co-Founder and CEO of LendInvest, said: “Savvy property investors won’t only look out for which areas will offer the best returns right now, but are considering the best growth for the months and years to come. That means spotting areas which will become more popular in the future. That may be due to improved transport links, for example those towns which are due to be on the new HS2 line, or those which are due to benefit from new infrastructure projects, which will bring additional employment into the region.”

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Note to Editors

Data sources: Land Registry, Zoopla