Luton has come out on top for capital value growth, transaction volumes, rental yields and rental price growth, LendInvest’s Buy-to-let Index has found.
Luton has finished top in the index for the third time in a row, Birmingham came fourth, ahead of Manhester at fifth, showing the Midlands cities as strong investment opportunities.
Regional capitals Cambridge and Bristol broke into the top 10 at sixth and eighth while South East rose from 79th in June 2017 to 33rd.
Ian Boden, sales director at LendInvest, said: “It’d be so easy to look at the underlying data that tells us transaction volumes are down and make dire predictions about the health and wealth of the rental market.
“Instead, what our Index proves once again is that looking at one metric in the housing market is never enough. One metric on its own can’t clearly define the performance of a city’s property market.
“Each of the very top performing buy-to-let locations this quarter is experiencing a slowdown in transactions - substantial falls in places, dips in others.”
Boden added: “But, the best places this quarter continue to outperform the competition well thanks to strong performances on other, equally important metrics like rental yield, capital gains and rental price growth.
“Data from the buy-to-let Index, UK Finance and our own experience as a mortgage lender strongly suggests that right now a ‘buy, hold and remortgage’ strategy is some investors’ preference while the market works through a possible slowdown.”
