Landlords keen to know where the best towns for rental yields in England and Wales are will find a report from Lendinvest interesting.
The financial platform analysed the areas that offered the best returns in the year to July 2016 and found that the best average yields were in Blackburn where yields rose by 37.8% to 5.69% from 4.13%.
Landlords there also enjoy one of the cheapest areas of the regions analysed for average house prices which stand at £95,000.
The best rental yields
In second place for the best rental yields is Carlisle which saw its yield over the year increase by 36.5% while landlords in Gloucester so their yields rise by 19.4%.
The buy to let index also looked at the worst regions where landlords saw the poorest rental yield growth with Durham coming out on top with yields slipping by 34.2% to 4.67% with Chester and Croydon close behind.
The chief executive of Lendinvest, Christian Faes, said: “Savvy property investors need to spot areas that will become popular in the future which may be due to better transport links which are benefiting from infrastructure projects which bring extra employment the area.”
London's tenants hand over £2bn in 'useless deposits
Meanwhile, research has revealed that London's 96,000 tenants have handed over early £2 billion to their letting agents and landlords with just 97% of them seeing the cash being returned when their tenancy ends.
The figures from Dlighted, a deposit free renting solution, examined the number of households that are privately rented in 33 boroughs and multiplied that figure by the average monthly cost for renting to generate a typical deposit cost.
The firm says that with most agents and landlords now demanding a deposit from tenants that's equivalent to six weeks of rent, the actual cost of rental deposits made on rented properties in London could reach £3 billion.
More than half of residents living there having to rent
Of all the boroughs analysed, Westminster racked up the biggest deposit bill of £250 million with more than half of residents living there having to rent a private property.
The next biggest bill is in Kensington and Chelsea where one in three residents rent their home and spend around £136 million on deposits before they move in.
Other boroughs with large tenancy deposit bills include Camden with £124 million, Lambeth with £111 million and Wandsworth where deposits are worth around £100 million.
Dlighted's Ajay Jagota said: “The money is gathering dust and it is gaining interest in a bank account of those it does not legally belong to. T0he industry should take a hard look itself and consider an insurance-based system.
“This would mean a better deal for renters and landlords and also more money for our economy.”
