OUR BEST PLACES TO INVEST IN UK PROPERTY 2022
Jess Chambers
March 10th, 2022
Share this post
Start your property portfolio today!
Are you an avid investor in property, or perhaps just looking to get into it? Whatever your level of property experience, it’s still beneficial to keep up with the latest trends in the property market, in particular the current town or city that may be best to put your money in, as it’s always changing!
So, where’s the best place in the UK to invest in property in 2022? There’s a whole lot to consider when choosing a specific area such as your budget, the type of investor you want to be, what the potential yields are and if the area presents a good opportunity for capital gains, to name a few.
Not to worry, we’ve done all the leg work for you and put together this handy guide to get you going!
We certainly hope so, or we wouldn’t be here!
The answer is yes, it’s almost always yes, no matter what year it is. 2021 defied all expectations in terms of the economy, in spite of all the lockdowns and Covid-19 issues, the economy and property market boomed and it’s expected that it will continue well into 2022.
It’s not only this year that looks like it’s going to shape up as a fantastic year for the property market but also the next few years – Savills have done an interesting forecast on the market over the next 5 years which shows a good level of growth over the next 3-4 years in particular, with it set to slow down towards 2026, although it is still showing growth. If you look at those stats, then arguably you should be purchasing your investment property as soon as possible!
When you’re trying to narrow down an area to invest there are a couple of considerations you need to take into account. You’ve got a rather large area to choose from with a lot of excellent investment locations across the UK, so you need to narrow down your options and really zone in on an area that is going to work best for you – and here’s how.
Your budget
Depending on how much you can spend will have a large effect on the area that you’re actually able to buy. Typically investors look at cheaper properties, as they tend to be the ones that offer a high percent yield and it avoids you having too high of a percentage of your funds tied up in a single property allowing you to diversify and spread risk.
There will be a point however that it’s worth buying more expensive properties because of the amount of work or management fees associated with managing multiple cheaper properties.
Resale value and growth
The next thing to look into is the growth of the house prices in the area and what the potential growth might be in the months and years to come that you will be holding the property. You want to choose an area that looks positive in terms of the local investment, developments and is a desirable area where people want to live.
Knowledge of the area
It isn’t essential to have knowledge of the area, but it helps a lot. Most people’s first investment property is one that’s close to an area they know, and it’s for good reason. Having in-depth knowledge can really help, as I’m sure you’ll know an area where you live that one street is far more sought after than the street next to it, and that’s the same everywhere!
The insider knowledge will help you get the best possible deal.
Potential yield
This should go without saying, but the rental yield is obviously a huge part and the percent you can achieve is often dictated by the area. If you aren’t aware, the rental yield is the amount of money that you make from an investment property based on the overall cost of the property and income received, the way that you can calculate this is divide the perceived rental income by the property value and then multiply by 100.
Anything above the 5-6% mark can be considered a good rental yield.
AVOID!
You want to avoid locations that are rural, have poor transport links, a low amount of large employees – there are also areas that are seen as quite prestigious where the values are higher than you can achieve from a rent perspective so they don’t really make sense, like Oxford, or York for example.
We’re experts in property investment, dealing with hundreds of properties every year and highlighting opportunities to investors on a daily basis – so we get to see which areas are regularly snapped up and offering the best opportunities.
Using all our knowledge and research, we’ve collated a list of some of the most popular (and where we think will continue to be the most popular) areas in the UK over this year, and an explanation as to why.
Manchester
The northern powerhouse that is Manchester is also a fantastic place to put your money, and perhaps the most exciting. It’s an area that has seen a huge amount of growth in recent years and has continually seen property price increases over the years and the trend looks set to continue which can be largely attributed to the growth of the population and economy of the area. There are also fantastic future development plans underway in the city, particularly around the improved public transport projects which again is going to further benefit the area.
When looking at Manchester as an overall area, you can use a tool like Zoopla house prices to detail the average sold house prices over the past 12 months, which at the time of this article you can see Manchester has an average of £235,333.
Now you can jump over to another resource, which we tend to look at Home.co.uk, but there are others out there. They detail that the average rental in Manchester over the past 12 months is £1,323.
Calculating the yield on that presents an average of 6.75%. That doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve more than that, for example, if you look at the same website stats for flats you’ll see the average sale price is £172,140 and the average rental is £1,471, a massive 10.25% yield, excluding potential extra costs that come with a flat, but you get the point, the potential is definitely there!
Birmingham
Outside of London, Birmingham is the biggest city – the so-called “second city”. The city is not only significant in regards to population and size, but it’s also an attractive place for investors due to its abundance of cheaper property opportunities. Despite the lower property prices, the income is relatively good as an average, attracting skilled workers and making it an attractive area for tenants, and in turn a hotspot for landlords.
Looking at the same stats from Zoopla, the average property price over the last 12 months has been £238,656 in which they provide the breakdown below:
- Detached: £441,005
- Semi-detached: £241,074
- Terraced: £211,705
- Flats: £145,075
Combining this figure with the average rental price presented by Home.co.uk currently as of writing this of £1,213pcm which gives you an average yield of 6.1%. Again, much like Manchester, you can be savvy with this by picking the right kind of properties and getting a good deal, when looking at the average flat price above and the average £1,045pcm rental you would be looking at an 8.64% yield.
Birmingham in recent years has seen some great growth in regards to house prices, particularly since 2019. Plumplot have some fantastic statistics on the Birmingham real house prices and trends as well as breaking the statistics down into specific areas of Birmingham, it’s an incredibly useful page that will help you determine whether the city is right for you.
Leeds
Where the best company in the world is located, us!
Apart from that, it’s a key city in the UK and is one of the northern powerhouses with great capital growth and a demand for housing – all fuelling the area as a prime location for investors. Being one of the fastest-growing economies in the country has also meant that there is an extremely high demand for rental properties, again making it the perfect place to own a Buy To Let.
Currently, the Zoopla house price data indicates that the average sold price in Leeds for the last 12 months is £256,752. The average rental prices are also pretty high compared to other cities at £1,419pcm again according to home.co.uk which presents a high average yield of 6.63%.
The most appealing thing about Leeds is likely its capital growth potential, in the last year most places saw a significant jump in sold house prices due to the COVID effect on property, however, Leeds had more impressive growth than most. The house price report for the city from Jan 1995 to late 2021 indicates almost constant growth year on year.
Newcastle
Newcastle is attractive mainly as it’s one of the most affordable city locations that you will find in the UK, which is significant because it allows you to get some of the best rental yields available. It’s a fast-growing city and the headquarter to a lot of large businesses, attracting professionals and particularly young professionals just out of the local universities, which means rental prices are relatively high.
In Newcastle the average prices in the last 12 months are sitting at £233,646 according to Zoopla. They also breakdown the different property types and their average sold prices, which are:
- Detached: £406,314
- Semi-detached: £206,797
- Terraced: £208,367
- Flats: £137,627
The types of properties that will present the highest yields in the area are definitely terrace and flats houses, but as an average the yield isn’t as impressive as some of the other cities, using home.co.uk average rental per calendar month figure of £1,003 – presenting 5.15% yield. If you use the statistics for flats, however, then you’re looking at an 8.22% yield, average!
Nottingham
Nottingham has gone a miss for several investors over the year, a city that isn’t often one of the first you would consider, but it’s a sleeping giant due to its huge growth over the past few years and is becoming an increasingly popular option. It’s not the most affordable city for investors, but it does offer options that compete with the likes of Manchester and Birmingham in terms of house prices and certain postcodes can represent yields on the higher end (7%).
The average price in the city according to Zoopla over the last 12 months is sitting at £245,503 with the rental sitting at £1,232pcm on home.co.uk which is representative of a reasonable yield at 6.02%.
If you look at PropertyData statistics who breakdown the average asking price by postcode and provide a rental yield you can see that there are particular postcodes that are more attractive than others, with the likes of NG1 representing a 7.2% yield, and NG7 following close behind with 6.7% – the two particular areas of note.
Sheffield
The Steel City has always been a place of interest for investors and over the past few years, they’ve gone through a large regeneration project that they are now reaping the benefits from with significant growth in the shopping districts and amenities particularly.
The average house price in Sheffield is fairly reasonable too, with Zoopla stating over the last 12 months it’s sitting at £225,746 and the average rent again according to home.co.uk is £886pcm which provides a reasonable 4.71% yield.
As an investor, you might want to look at yields higher than that though, and it’s all about picking the right area and types of investment property. HMOs are particularly popular in Sheffield due to its large student population, and if you pick the right area you can achieve better yields with S1 and S3 achieving 5.7% and 5.5% on average, according to PropertyData.
Liverpool
The regeneration of the city in recent years has made Liverpool an increasingly trendy and attractive place to live, but at the moment it’s still an extremely affordable place for investors to choose. The growth in house price in the last few years perhaps hasn’t been as strong as some of our other highlighted areas, but the rentals are improving causing yields to be on the high end.
The average house price according to Zoopla the average house price over the last 12 months in the Liverpool area has been £205,395. You combine that with the figure from home.co.uk on average rental prices of £898pcm which averages out at a yield of 5.25%, respectable.
There’s more money to be made if you’re picky about the types of property you choose in the area though, terrace properties in the city go on average for £146,747 and flats at £144,132. There are some postcodes that have particularly good average yields as well, like L1, L4 & L5 which are all 6% or over according to PropertyData.
Whilst researching the best places to invest in the UK and using all the information we have from our enquiries, we had a few that ran pretty close to the mark and almost made our list! As we mentioned, property investing is becoming increasingly popular and with the forecasts for the market looking fantastic, there is a lot of areas on the up and up.
Here are just a few we’ve highlighted for you that might be worth digging into further as a potential area for future investment:
Slough
Slough is and always has been a commuter town, but the rail developments that are ongoing is making it a considerably desirable location for professionals – it also has its own set of large businesses that are local, bringing an increased amount of jobs to the area and making it a true buy to let hotspot.
Reading
Again another area that’s popular because of how well connected it is with several direct rail links to important places in the plans, such as Heathrow for example, it’s an area that could see a significant rise in population over the next few years. There’s heavy investment in the local infrastructure, Universities and retail areas of the town which is going to make it a more attractive place to live for professionals.
Middlesbrough
It’s a bit of a curveball and perhaps an area you wouldn’t expect us to recommend, but the North Yorkshire town has boasted some really impressive capital growth stats over the last few years and the house prices are rising at an incredible rate. The yields, in general, aren’t particularly high, but if you hold the property for a few years, the value is likely to significantly shoot up.
Judging by all of our research which we’ve detailed above it would have to be Manchester, an incredible average yield of 6.75% is amazing. You can also likely achieve a lot higher in the city by finding yourself a good below market value deal and choosing the right kind of property, which as we’ve spoken about is typically smaller terraces and flats.
This is a harder one to answer, pretty much every city and town in the UK showed a significant amount of growth post-lockdown. If we had to recommend an area that we think will continue to grow significantly it would be certain areas of Liverpool, specifically around Toxteth which has seen a huge growth in recent years and there are no signs of it slowing down! Closely followed by areas in the Greater Manchester area.
Start your property portfolio today!
Are you an avid investor in property, or perhaps just looking to get into it? Whatever your level of property experience, it’s still beneficial to keep up with the latest trends in the property market, in particular the current town or city that may be best to put your money in, as it’s always changing!
So, where’s the best place in the UK to invest in property in 2022? There’s a whole lot to consider when choosing a specific area such as your budget, the type of investor you want to be, what the potential yields are and if the area presents a good opportunity for capital gains, to name a few.
Not to worry, we’ve done all the leg work for you and put together this handy guide to get you going!
We certainly hope so, or we wouldn’t be here!
The answer is yes, it’s almost always yes, no matter what year it is. 2021 defied all expectations in terms of the economy, in spite of all the lockdowns and Covid-19 issues, the economy and property market boomed and it’s expected that it will continue well into 2022.
It’s not only this year that looks like it’s going to shape up as a fantastic year for the property market but also the next few years – Savills have done an interesting forecast on the market over the next 5 years which shows a good level of growth over the next 3-4 years in particular, with it set to slow down towards 2026, although it is still showing growth. If you look at those stats, then arguably you should be purchasing your investment property as soon as possible!
When you’re trying to narrow down an area to invest there are a couple of considerations you need to take into account. You’ve got a rather large area to choose from with a lot of excellent investment locations across the UK, so you need to narrow down your options and really zone in on an area that is going to work best for you – and here’s how.
Your budget
Depending on how much you can spend will have a large effect on the area that you’re actually able to buy. Typically investors look at cheaper properties, as they tend to be the ones that offer a high percent yield and it avoids you having too high of a percentage of your funds tied up in a single property allowing you to diversify and spread risk.
There will be a point however that it’s worth buying more expensive properties because of the amount of work or management fees associated with managing multiple cheaper properties.
Resale value and growth
The next thing to look into is the growth of the house prices in the area and what the potential growth might be in the months and years to come that you will be holding the property. You want to choose an area that looks positive in terms of the local investment, developments and is a desirable area where people want to live.
Knowledge of the area
It isn’t essential to have knowledge of the area, but it helps a lot. Most people’s first investment property is one that’s close to an area they know, and it’s for good reason. Having in-depth knowledge can really help, as I’m sure you’ll know an area where you live that one street is far more sought after than the street next to it, and that’s the same everywhere!
The insider knowledge will help you get the best possible deal.
Potential yield
This should go without saying, but the rental yield is obviously a huge part and the percent you can achieve is often dictated by the area. If you aren’t aware, the rental yield is the amount of money that you make from an investment property based on the overall cost of the property and income received, the way that you can calculate this is divide the perceived rental income by the property value and then multiply by 100.
Anything above the 5-6% mark can be considered a good rental yield.
AVOID!
You want to avoid locations that are rural, have poor transport links, a low amount of large employees – there are also areas that are seen as quite prestigious where the values are higher than you can achieve from a rent perspective so they don’t really make sense, like Oxford, or York for example.
We’re experts in property investment, dealing with hundreds of properties every year and highlighting opportunities to investors on a daily basis – so we get to see which areas are regularly snapped up and offering the best opportunities.
Using all our knowledge and research, we’ve collated a list of some of the most popular (and where we think will continue to be the most popular) areas in the UK over this year, and an explanation as to why.
Manchester
The northern powerhouse that is Manchester is also a fantastic place to put your money, and perhaps the most exciting. It’s an area that has seen a huge amount of growth in recent years and has continually seen property price increases over the years and the trend looks set to continue which can be largely attributed to the growth of the population and economy of the area. There are also fantastic future development plans underway in the city, particularly around the improved public transport projects which again is going to further benefit the area.
When looking at Manchester as an overall area, you can use a tool like Zoopla house prices to detail the average sold house prices over the past 12 months, which at the time of this article you can see Manchester has an average of £235,333.
Now you can jump over to another resource, which we tend to look at Home.co.uk, but there are others out there. They detail that the average rental in Manchester over the past 12 months is £1,323.
Calculating the yield on that presents an average of 6.75%. That doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve more than that, for example, if you look at the same website stats for flats you’ll see the average sale price is £172,140 and the average rental is £1,471, a massive 10.25% yield, excluding potential extra costs that come with a flat, but you get the point, the potential is definitely there!
Birmingham
Outside of London, Birmingham is the biggest city – the so-called “second city”. The city is not only significant in regards to population and size, but it’s also an attractive place for investors due to its abundance of cheaper property opportunities. Despite the lower property prices, the income is relatively good as an average, attracting skilled workers and making it an attractive area for tenants, and in turn a hotspot for landlords.
Looking at the same stats from Zoopla, the average property price over the last 12 months has been £238,656 in which they provide the breakdown below:
- Detached: £441,005
- Semi-detached: £241,074
- Terraced: £211,705
- Flats: £145,075
Combining this figure with the average rental price presented by Home.co.uk currently as of writing this of £1,213pcm which gives you an average yield of 6.1%. Again, much like Manchester, you can be savvy with this by picking the right kind of properties and getting a good deal, when looking at the average flat price above and the average £1,045pcm rental you would be looking at an 8.64% yield.
Birmingham in recent years has seen some great growth in regards to house prices, particularly since 2019. Plumplot have some fantastic statistics on the Birmingham real house prices and trends as well as breaking the statistics down into specific areas of Birmingham, it’s an incredibly useful page that will help you determine whether the city is right for you.
Leeds
Where the best company in the world is located, us!
Apart from that, it’s a key city in the UK and is one of the northern powerhouses with great capital growth and a demand for housing – all fuelling the area as a prime location for investors. Being one of the fastest-growing economies in the country has also meant that there is an extremely high demand for rental properties, again making it the perfect place to own a Buy To Let.
Currently, the Zoopla house price data indicates that the average sold price in Leeds for the last 12 months is £256,752. The average rental prices are also pretty high compared to other cities at £1,419pcm again according to home.co.uk which presents a high average yield of 6.63%.
The most appealing thing about Leeds is likely its capital growth potential, in the last year most places saw a significant jump in sold house prices due to the COVID effect on property, however, Leeds had more impressive growth than most. The house price report for the city from Jan 1995 to late 2021 indicates almost constant growth year on year.
Newcastle
Newcastle is attractive mainly as it’s one of the most affordable city locations that you will find in the UK, which is significant because it allows you to get some of the best rental yields available. It’s a fast-growing city and the headquarter to a lot of large businesses, attracting professionals and particularly young professionals just out of the local universities, which means rental prices are relatively high.
In Newcastle the average prices in the last 12 months are sitting at £233,646 according to Zoopla. They also breakdown the different property types and their average sold prices, which are:
- Detached: £406,314
- Semi-detached: £206,797
- Terraced: £208,367
- Flats: £137,627
The types of properties that will present the highest yields in the area are definitely terrace and flats houses, but as an average the yield isn’t as impressive as some of the other cities, using home.co.uk average rental per calendar month figure of £1,003 – presenting 5.15% yield. If you use the statistics for flats, however, then you’re looking at an 8.22% yield, average!
Nottingham
Nottingham has gone a miss for several investors over the year, a city that isn’t often one of the first you would consider, but it’s a sleeping giant due to its huge growth over the past few years and is becoming an increasingly popular option. It’s not the most affordable city for investors, but it does offer options that compete with the likes of Manchester and Birmingham in terms of house prices and certain postcodes can represent yields on the higher end (7%).
The average price in the city according to Zoopla over the last 12 months is sitting at £245,503 with the rental sitting at £1,232pcm on home.co.uk which is representative of a reasonable yield at 6.02%.
If you look at PropertyData statistics who breakdown the average asking price by postcode and provide a rental yield you can see that there are particular postcodes that are more attractive than others, with the likes of NG1 representing a 7.2% yield, and NG7 following close behind with 6.7% – the two particular areas of note.
Sheffield
The Steel City has always been a place of interest for investors and over the past few years, they’ve gone through a large regeneration project that they are now reaping the benefits from with significant growth in the shopping districts and amenities particularly.
The average house price in Sheffield is fairly reasonable too, with Zoopla stating over the last 12 months it’s sitting at £225,746 and the average rent again according to home.co.uk is £886pcm which provides a reasonable 4.71% yield.
As an investor, you might want to look at yields higher than that though, and it’s all about picking the right area and types of investment property. HMOs are particularly popular in Sheffield due to its large student population, and if you pick the right area you can achieve better yields with S1 and S3 achieving 5.7% and 5.5% on average, according to PropertyData.
Liverpool
The regeneration of the city in recent years has made Liverpool an increasingly trendy and attractive place to live, but at the moment it’s still an extremely affordable place for investors to choose. The growth in house price in the last few years perhaps hasn’t been as strong as some of our other highlighted areas, but the rentals are improving causing yields to be on the high end.
The average house price according to Zoopla the average house price over the last 12 months in the Liverpool area has been £205,395. You combine that with the figure from home.co.uk on average rental prices of £898pcm which averages out at a yield of 5.25%, respectable.
There’s more money to be made if you’re picky about the types of property you choose in the area though, terrace properties in the city go on average for £146,747 and flats at £144,132. There are some postcodes that have particularly good average yields as well, like L1, L4 & L5 which are all 6% or over according to PropertyData.
Whilst researching the best places to invest in the UK and using all the information we have from our enquiries, we had a few that ran pretty close to the mark and almost made our list! As we mentioned, property investing is becoming increasingly popular and with the forecasts for the market looking fantastic, there is a lot of areas on the up and up.
Here are just a few we’ve highlighted for you that might be worth digging into further as a potential area for future investment:
Slough
Slough is and always has been a commuter town, but the rail developments that are ongoing is making it a considerably desirable location for professionals – it also has its own set of large businesses that are local, bringing an increased amount of jobs to the area and making it a true buy to let hotspot.
Reading
Again another area that’s popular because of how well connected it is with several direct rail links to important places in the plans, such as Heathrow for example, it’s an area that could see a significant rise in population over the next few years. There’s heavy investment in the local infrastructure, Universities and retail areas of the town which is going to make it a more attractive place to live for professionals.
Middlesbrough
It’s a bit of a curveball and perhaps an area you wouldn’t expect us to recommend, but the North Yorkshire town has boasted some really impressive capital growth stats over the last few years and the house prices are rising at an incredible rate. The yields, in general, aren’t particularly high, but if you hold the property for a few years, the value is likely to significantly shoot up.
Judging by all of our research which we’ve detailed above it would have to be Manchester, an incredible average yield of 6.75% is amazing. You can also likely achieve a lot higher in the city by finding yourself a good below market value deal and choosing the right kind of property, which as we’ve spoken about is typically smaller terraces and flats.
This is a harder one to answer, pretty much every city and town in the UK showed a significant amount of growth post-lockdown. If we had to recommend an area that we think will continue to grow significantly it would be certain areas of Liverpool, specifically around Toxteth which has seen a huge growth in recent years and there are no signs of it slowing down! Closely followed by areas in the Greater Manchester area.
Large discounts on property
Completely transparent
Tailored investment opportunities
We’ll handle everything for you
Looking for hassle free property?
We’ve got you! Whatever your motivations as a landlord or property owner are, we can help source and match property with you.
When the foundations of your company are built upon industry knowledge and experience, you can’t help but be a self-confident company.
Here at The Property Sourcing Company, we are led by a roster of industry experts who have over 50 years of combined experience in doing BMV property deals, as well as packaging them up for investors.
Quality sits at the heart of our team, who go the extra mile to tailor our service to you. We pride ourselves in our ability to source you a wide variety of high-yield property investments.
Get in touch and we’ll establish what type of property you’re searching for, before talking you through our current investment opportunities. We’ll also keep you posted as we acquire new deals.
When you buy your investment property through us and we’ll take care of solicitors, surveys – everything – all to ensure you have a stress-free property purchase. It’s just one of the ways we make investment work for you.
Why invest with us?
Simply put, we’ll get you the best possible deal. Our sister company, The Property Buying Company, have been in the property buying industry for years & we have access to all their stock which is at a price point that is ready for investors to buy and make a great return on.
No middlemen, no stress & no hassle. We make investing in property and growing your portfolio as easy as it possibly can be.
