The best buy to let hotspots revealed

The best places for buy to let investors to focus their attention have been revealed as Luton and Colchester by one BTL index.

The analysis by LendInvest looks at 105 postcode areas to determine which offers the best rental yields for landlords.

This sees, for the third time, Luton reclaiming the number one spot since December 2016.

Other key investment opportunities are to be found in Romford, Essex, and in Birmingham.

The survey highlights that for buy to let landlords looking for rental returns, they will earn slightly more in these cities than in Manchester.

‘The wealth and health of the rental market’

LendInvest's sales director, Ian Boden, said: “It would be easy to analyse the data that tells us that the volume of transactions are down and offer dire predictions about the wealth and health of the rental sector.

“But looking at just one metric cannot define clearly a city’s property market performance.”

He added that the top performing BTL locations have seen a slowdown in transactions, but the best locations have out-performed the competition with strong performance on other important metric such as capital gains, rent price growth and rental yield.

Mr Boden said: “The index data and our mortgage lending experience suggests that a 'buy, hold and remortgage strategy' is the preference for some investors while the market works through a potential slowdown."

New generation of buy to let investors attracted to the industry

Meanwhile, it's been revealed that a new generation of buy to let investors are being attracted to the rental sector because of the changing landscape.

That's the view of auction firm John Pye Property who say there's been a growth in the number of affordable properties coming to market, but it's also attracting a new breed of property investor.

Research shows there is a wider range of properties available than there were five years ago and fledgling investors are getting involved.

‘A new breed of investor’

The firm's head of property, Richard Reed, said: “The image of a middle-aged man with a medium-size portfolio is giving way to a new breed of investor.

“With an ever-growing variety of property suitable for buy to let, and the emergence of the online property market means investors are becoming digitally savvy.”

He said that the growth in the online property market is helping the industry change with online auctions attracting bidders from around the UK.