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Landlords are looking for value-for-money homes to rent in the cheapest neighbourhoods, according to one of Britain’s busiest online property portals.
OnTheMarket lists hundreds of thousands of properties for sale or to rent 24 hours before they are released to rival websites Rightmove and Zoopla.
By comparing website inquiries and searches with the number of homes for sale, OnTheMarket has drafted a hot list of the most popular neighbourhoods with landlords seeking to extend their portfolios.
Bradford, West Yorkshire, retains the top spot for the second quarter running.
OnTheMarket president Jason Tebb said: “Property buying decisions continue to be heavily influenced by affordability, according to our latest Hotspots Index, which reveals that some of the most active or ‘hottest’ areas also offer buyers the best value.”
“Overall, the north/south divide is holding firm, with some of the most vibrant and cheapest locations in the north seeing the most heat in terms of housing market activity and only one southern location making it into our top ten.”
Tebb explained that higher costs and mortgage rates had encouraged landlords to look towards cheaper towns and cities.
A post-pandemic shift to remote working allowed investors to consider areas farther away from city centres.
His analysis also noted only two southern locations made the top ten and four in the top 20, although many more made the lower placings.
Other top five rankings in order of popularity are:
Big movers include Wakefield and Birmingham.
Wakefield, another West Yorkshire, luring investors, jumped to 9th place after ranking 30th in the first quarter of 2024.
Birmingham also surged 20 places in the latest list - from 43rd to 23rd.
Some hotspots that have cooled since Q1 2024 include Wigan, down 13 places from 2nd to 15th; Liverpool, dropping from 11th to 30th; and Worthing, falling from 20th to 50th.
Brighton ranks bottom, falling from 51st in Q! 2024 to 54th.
The full hotspot ranking for Q2 2024 is:
Rank | Town\City |
1 | Bradford |
2 | Blackpool |
3 | Rochdale |
4 | Plymouth |
5 | Leicester |
6 | Stoke-on-Trent |
7 | Swindon |
8 | Sunderland |
9 | Wakefield |
10 | Derby |
11 | Middlesbrough |
12 | Burnley |
13 | Coventry |
14 | Huddersfield |
15 | Wigan |
16 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
17 | Blackburn |
18 | Cambridge |
19 | Slough |
20 | Mansfield |
21 | Sheffield |
22 | Doncaster |
23 | Birmingham |
24 | Bournemouth |
25 | Barnsley |
26 | Peterborough |
27 | Nottingham |
28 | Crawley |
29 | Basildon |
30 | Liverpool |
31 | Portsmouth |
32 | Exeter |
33 | Oxford |
34 | Bristol |
35 | Reading |
36 | Hull |
37 | Birkenhead |
38 | Ipswich |
39 | London |
40 | Telford |
41 | Manchester |
42 | Leeds |
43 | Chatham |
44 | Luton |
45 | Milton Keynes |
46 | Southampton |
47 | Aldershot |
48 | Northampton |
49 | Gloucester |
50 | Norwich |
51 | Warrington |
52 | Southend-on-Sea |
53 | Worthing |
54 | Brighton |
Source: OnTheMarket
Meanwhile, a buy-to-let confidence survey by specialist lender Paragon Bank notes that 83 per cent of landlords report increased tenant demand in the first three months of the year.
The research also revealed yields increased from 5.2 per cent a year at the end of 2023 to 6.1 per cent by March.