The latest rental tracker for England and Wales from Your Move has found that during November 2018, investors in northern regions enjoyed the highest percentage returns, with average yields much higher than in southern areas.
The average investor in the North East enjoyed an annual yield of 5% in the year to November while in the North West this figure was 4.8%.
Landlords in eight of the 10 surveyed regions saw yields remain firm between October and November, Your Move found.
The East of England and the East Midlands both saw a slight decline in yields. The former dropped from 3.7% to 3.6% while in the latter typical yield fell from 4.3% to 4.2%.
London continued to have the smallest percentage returns, recording 3.2% during the month. Across all of England and Wales the average yield was 4.3%, the same as a month ago.
Martyn Alderton, national lettings director at Your Move, said: “Properties in the North appear to offer high percentage returns to property investors and, as a result, they are attracting interest even more.
“This strong appetite to buy has been accompanied by a rise in demand for rental properties, since the North is attracting many young professionals and families with its good transport links and job prospects.
“As the London market continues to gently slow down, other regions are coming to the fore and proving attractive to investors.
“In the South West there was also good news and rental prices increased faster than anywhere else. The region boasts both the up and coming city of Bristol and some of the most picturesque parts of the world in Devon and Cornwall.”
Rents in the South West region grew faster than anywhere else in the last 12 months, Your Move found. Rental prices rose by 4.3% in the year to November 2018 and now stand at £701. This is higher than the 1.8% average rise across all of England and Wales.
This was ahead of the next best performer – the East Midlands – where rents rose by 1.9% to hit an average of £663.