Manchester tops the buy to let index for England and Wales

Manchester is the top location for buy to let investment in England and Wales with cities in the North of England at the bottom, according to the latest lending index.

The highest yields for landlords are in Manchester at 5.55% and the city is also top in terms of rental growth at 5.76% and has a reasonable capital gains growth at 8.34%, the buy to let index from specialist lender LendInvest.

The quarterly index ranks all 105 postcodes in England and Wales based on a combination of rental yields, capital gains, rent growth and transaction volumes.

In terms of the top 10 Colchester is in second place with 3.78% and top for capital gains at 11.96% with rent growth of 5.76%. In third place is Luton with yields of 4.03%, capital gains of 9.16% and rent growth of 5.26%.

All the bottom 10 buy to let locations are in the North of England apart from Enfield and include Durham with yields of 4.47%, a capital gains loss of 2.52% and rents down 0.9%. Sunderland has yields of 5.37% but capital gains down 1.3% and rents down 0.18%.

When it comes to capital gains the top city is Colchester at 11.96%, followed by Southall at 11.09%, Hemel Hempstead at 10.27%, Slough at 10.19%, Harrow at 9.89% and Ipswich at 9.44%. While most are in the South of England Hull is in tenth with 8.46%.

Manchester has the highest rental growth at 5.76%, followed by Leicester at 5.3%, Luton up 5.26%, Rochester up 5.12%, Cardiff up 5%, Brighton up 4.61%, Swansea up 4.47%, Birmingham up 4.29%, Newcastle up 4.18% and Truro up 4.13%.

The index report points out that Manchester has knocked Luton off the overall top spot, Leicester is in the top 10 for the first time and Hull is the biggest climber, up 93 places to sixth since December 2016 while Enfield is the biggest fallers, down from six to 101.

According to Ian Boden, sales director at LendInvest, the figures indicate that the North and the Midlands are becoming good options for landlords. As well as Manchester cities such as Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham have also made significant gains in the index.