Best Places to Invest in UK Property (2026)

The guide

Lvl 02 / 02

How do the regions compare?

Region	Average price (July 2026)	Price change, 12 months	Savills five-year forecast to 2030	Average gross yield (Zoopla, Sept 2025)
North East	£166,943	+4.9%	23.9%	7.9%
North West	£221,445	+4.4%	25.0%	6.8%
Yorkshire and The Humber	£209,116	+3.0%	25.0%	6.5%
East Midlands	£242,274	+1.9%	19.0%	6.0%
West Midlands	£250,880	+1.5%	19.7%	6.2%
East of England	£337,518	+0.5%	13.9%	5.6%
South West	£302,298	−0.2%	17.9%	5.6%
South East	£380,878	+0.2%	13.4%	5.5%
London	£550,037	−3.3%	10.6%	5.1%
Wales	£215,037	+2.6%	23.2%	6.5%
Scotland	£196,349	+2.3%	22.6%	7.6%
England	£293,479	+1.1%	UK: 18.5%	n/a

Sources: GOV.UK UK House Price Index, July 2026 (prices and change); Savills, 1 June 2026 (forecasts); Zoopla, September 2025 (gross yields, which are annual rent as a percentage of price, before any costs).

Three cautions on this table. The forecasts are forecasts: Savills expects 0% for the North East, North West and Yorkshire in 2026 itself, and it cut its UK outlook because of higher mortgage rates. The yields are gross and a year old. And all of these are averages across very different towns and streets.

Which UK cities have the highest rental yields?

Zoopla's September 2025 analysis ranked these cities highest by average gross yield. The UK average was 5.8%.

City	Average gross yield
Sunderland	9.3%
Aberdeen	8.3%
Burnley	8.2%
Dundee	8.1%
Middlesbrough	8.1%
Hull	8.0%
Blackburn	7.9%
Glasgow	7.8%
Grimsby	7.7%
Liverpool	7.7%
Newcastle	7.7%

A high gross yield isn't a recommendation. It tells you where rent is high compared with price, not whether the rent is reliable, whether the property needs work, or what you'll keep after costs. Use a list like this to decide where to look, then test the specific property.

What do the averages hide?

The same region can look very different depending on how you measure it.

Zoopla puts the North East's average gross yield at 7.9%. But divide the ONS average North East rent (£788 × 12 = £9,456) by the average price (£166,943) and you get about 5.7%. London comes out at 5.1% either way (£2,332 × 12 ÷ £550,037). So the gap between the North East and London looks big on one measure and modest on the other.

The two methods use different data, so neither is wrong. It does show why a regional yield is a rough guide at best. The returns that matter are the ones on a particular home: its price, its rent, its running costs and its condition. Our guide Is Buy-to-Let Still a Good Investment in 2026? shows how to turn a headline yield into the net yield on your total investment.

Price growth hides things too. A region's 12-month average can sit alongside a street where prices haven't moved for years. London's −3.3% is an average across a city where some boroughs are doing much better or worse. Look at sold prices on the street you're considering, not just the region.

Is it cheap prices, or something else, doing the work?

Line up the regions three ways: by average price, by price growth in the last 12 months, and by Savills' five-year forecast. The same five regions come out on top each time. The five cheapest are the North East (£166,943), Scotland, Yorkshire and The Humber, Wales and the North West. They are also the five with the fastest price growth in the year to July 2026, and the five Savills expects to grow most to 2030, at 22.6% to 25.0%. London, the South East and the East of England, the three most expensive, are the three it expects to grow least (10.6% to 13.9%).

That isn't a coincidence. Where homes cost less compared with what people earn, buyers have more room, and that holds prices up. Savills points to better affordability in the northern regions and the devolved nations as part of its reasoning. The ONS affordability ratios fit the pattern: house prices are 5.0 times median workplace earnings in the North East against 10.6 in London.

Cheap isn't the same as good, though. If affordability is the engine, what matters is whether the street you're buying on has it. Hull is a useful example. It is joint most affordable local authority in England and Wales (ratio 4.1) and it also appears in Zoopla's list of highest yields (8.0%). Low prices, real local demand and workable rents came together there. A cheap street with weak demand has none of this.

What makes a place good for investors?

Rather than ask which place is best, ask whether a place passes these tests:

Price against rent. Does the rent a home earns justify the price, after costs?
Reliable tenant demand. Are there enough people who need to live there, and will they keep needing to?
Supply. Are lots of similar homes being built or let at once?
A record and an outlook. Has the area held its value, and what could change that?
Affordability. Are local earnings high enough, relative to prices, to keep demand healthy?
A way out. If you need to sell, are there buyers?
Costs and tax. Do local rules and taxes change your numbers?
Management. Can you get the property managed well from where you are?

The more of these a place passes at once, the stronger the case. Few places pass all of them, so most decisions are a trade-off.

What drives tenant demand?

Rental demand follows people, and people follow work, study and the cost of buying. The things worth checking in any area are:

Local employers. Large, varied employers are more reliable than one big one. If a single factory closes and a street goes quiet, you need to know that before you buy.
Hospitals and universities. These bring steady demand from staff, students and visiting workers.
Transport links. Rail connections and commuting times widen the pool of tenants.
Affordability. Where buying a home is hardest, more people keep renting. ONS puts the average house price at 10.6 times median workplace earnings in London, 7.6 in England and 5.0 in the North East. A lower ratio can mean more tenants can buy, but it also means the rents they can pay are lower, so check the rent you'll actually get.
Investment and regeneration. New workplaces and infrastructure can lift demand, but proposals change, so treat them as upside, not as part of your numbers.

For a worked example of this approach, see our guide to property investment in the North East, where we trace tenant demand to named employers and public investment.

What does your capital actually buy?

The same money goes a very different distance depending on where you buy. As an illustration, here is a 25% deposit on the average home in each region, and how much of an average home £100,000 would buy.

Region	Average price	A 25% deposit	£100,000 buys this share of an average home
North East	£166,943	£41,740	60%
Scotland	£196,349	£49,090	51%
Yorkshire and The Humber	£209,116	£52,280	48%
Wales	£215,037	£53,760	47%
North West	£221,445	£55,360	45%
East Midlands	£242,274	£60,570	41%
West Midlands	£250,880	£62,720	40%
South West	£302,298	£75,570	33%
East of England	£337,518	£84,380	30%
South East	£380,878	£95,220	26%
London	£550,037	£137,510	18%

Calculated from GOV.UK UK House Price Index averages, July 2026. The 25% deposit is an illustration, not a lender requirement; lenders set their own terms.

That changes what you can do, not only what you can afford. £140,000 would cover the deposit on one average London home, or deposits on about three average North East homes. In cheaper markets you can spread your money across more than one street, or more than one town, which reduces the risk of one local market going wrong. The trade-off is more properties to manage, and spreading only helps if each one still passes the checks above.

A deposit is only part of what you pay. Stamp duty, legal fees, any works and an empty period all come on top. Our guide Is Buy-to-Let Still a Good Investment in 2026? shows how to add them up into your total investment. For the cash you need in each region, see How Much Money Do You Need to Invest in UK Property?

Does tax change by location?

It can. In England and Northern Ireland, buying an additional dwelling carries a 5% stamp duty surcharge. In Scotland, the Additional Dwelling Supplement is 8% for contracts entered into on or after 5 December 2024. Wales has its own Land Transaction Tax with its own rates for additional properties, so check the current rates. These costs come on top of the price, so a place with a lower headline price in Scotland or Wales may not be cheaper to buy once you count them. Always include them in your total investment, as we show in our buy-to-let guide.

Rules for landlords also differ by nation, and some are changing. In England, Section 21 evictions ended on 1 May 2026. Check the rules for the nation you're buying in.

What are the main risks?

Chasing the highest yield. The highest gross yields often sit in areas where prices are low for a reason. Check demand street by street.
Relying on forecasts. Savills cut its UK five-year forecast because of higher mortgage rates. Don't build a deal on forecast growth.
Buying where you can't see. If you don't live nearby, management you can rely on matters more.
Concentration. One local market means one set of employers and one local economy. Spreading across places reduces that risk, but it costs more in time and capital.
Paying more than the property is worth. A regional average tells you nothing about whether a specific price is fair. Compare sold prices on the same street.
Forgetting the costs. Stamp duty, legal fees, works, empty periods and management all reduce the yield.

How do you compare two places?

Pick two areas you're considering and, for each:

Find named sales and current rents on the streets you'd buy.
Work out the net yield on total investment for a realistic property, including stamp duty, legal fees, works and a void period.
Check the employers, transport links and any large developments that affect demand.
Check how many similar homes are for sale or to let, and how long they take.
Stress-test the result: a rate rise, an empty spell, and no rent growth.
Decide who will manage it, what they charge and what's included.

Choose the one that works on income first, with growth as a bonus.

How we approach it at Akoya

We sell fully refurbished terraced homes in County Durham to investors who live elsewhere, so weigh our view accordingly. We chose County Durham for four reasons:

Entry price. The county's average price is £140,447, and a terraced home averages £117,000, so the same capital goes further than in most of England.
Rental demand. Tenant demand comes from people who work locally, in a region with the fastest rent growth in England (5.8%).
Capital appreciation. County Durham prices rose 4.7% in the year to July 2026, and Savills forecasts 23.9% for the North East to 2030. We think the growth case is real, but we don't build it into our numbers: a deal should work on rent, with growth on top.
Future planning. Proposals such as the Aykley Heads development zone and the devolution investment fund point to continued public investment, though proposals can change.

None of these works on its own. We look for streets where price, tenant demand and location all work at once, and we're willing to say no where they don't. Across the buy-to-let homes we sell, a tenant is already in place by completion and the average time from reservation to completion is 3 to 4 weeks.

What you give up with our approach: concentration in one local market, less exposure to price growth than prime areas, and older housing stock. The full reasoning is in our guide to property investment in the North East. If you'd like us to run your own numbers, talk to us about investing or see the current buy-to-let stock.

Common questions

What is the best place to invest in UK property? There isn't a single answer. The North East and North West have the fastest price and rent growth in England in the latest data, and Savills forecasts the North West and Yorkshire to grow most to 2030. But the best place for you depends on your goal, your capital and how hands-on you want to be.

Where are the highest rental yields in the UK? Zoopla's September 2025 data put Sunderland highest at 9.3% gross, followed by Aberdeen (8.3%) and Burnley (8.2%). Those are gross yields and a year old, so work out the net yield on total investment for any property you consider.

Is London still a good place to invest? London is the most expensive region, with the lowest average gross yield (5.1% in Zoopla's data) and falling prices (−3.3% in the year to July 2026). Some investors choose it for different reasons, such as the depth of the rental market, but it needs far more capital and the numbers are tighter.

Are house prices still rising? In most English regions, yes, but slowly. England rose 1.1% in the year to July 2026, with the North East highest (4.9%) and London lowest (−3.3%). Savills expects 2026 to be flat to down across most of the country, so don't rely on rises.

Should I invest in one place or spread across several? One place is simpler to manage and understand. Several spreads the risk but takes more time and capital. Neither is better in itself; it depends on how much you can invest and how hands-on you want to be.

This article is general information, not financial, tax or legal advice. Akoya is not regulated by the FCA.