The UK property market is booming. Despite the unexpected challenges faced during the course of 2020, the property market consistently proved its resilience in the face of adversary and ended on a record high.
In their December house price index, Halifax found that the average price of a home in the UK reached a record high of £253,374 – an impressive 6% higher than that of the same month in the year prior and 0.2% higher than in November. The index also found that in Q4, house prices were 2.6% higher than in the three preceding months.
Letting firm Apropos have found that this impressive end to the year has carried on through into 2021. According to Apropos, almost two thirds of the UK’s largest cities are experiencing a property selling boom, finding that the number of properties advertised for sale has risen by between 1-55% in 12 of the UK’s largest cities.
GetAgent.co.uk echoed this sentiment in a recent report which found that current levels of buyer demand are at their highest point since early 2019 at 51%, up an impressive 9% on the same time last year and 8% on the last quarter.
This overwhelmingly positive sentiment for one of the UK’s most stable markets should be music to buy to let investors ears. More and more people are struggling to get onto the property ladder and therefore renting for longer periods, but where are the buy to let hotspots for 2021?
Well, according to research from Accommodation.co.uk, the North of England continues to be the most popular region for landlord investment in 2021. The newly released data found that 32% of landlords chose the North West in particular as their preferred buy to let investment location for the coming year.
The South-East was the second most popular area with 27%, closely followed by the West Midlands with 20%. On the other end of the spectrum, Scotland, Wales and the East of England were deeded the least admirable areas for investment, accumulating less than 5% of the total votes.
Aaron Short, Founder and CEO at Accommodation.co.uk, comments: ‘We are always listening to our landlords and tenants to ensure our proposition reflects the needs of the market and this is why the National Landlord Index is so important. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the lettings sector, but it is great to see landlords positive about the future of the sector and this certainly mirrors the growth we have seen at Accommodation.co.uk.
The North of England has continued its impressive growth in the property sector over the last few years, with more and more people leaving the capital in favour of the North. According to Zoopla. cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Leeds have all seen increases in house prices over the last five years at a much higher rate than in the capital, and JLL have forecast that rental growth is expected to increase in a similar vein.
In their regional forecast for the North of England, JLL found that Manchester’s house prices will grow by a cumulative 27.1% and average rent by 16.5% in the 2020-2024 period, Liverpool will see a 13.1% house prices growth increase and 14.8% rental growth increase, and Leeds a 14.8% house prices growth and 12.0% rental growth increase.
2021 is set to be yet another prosperous year in the UK property market, and many of the buy to let hotspots can be found up North. Are you looking to invest in the North of England? Here at yieldit we have an abundance of tenanted, income-generating properties across the country. Take a look at our available investment opportunities here!
