Student property yields vary more by what a landlord owns than many expect, ranging from 5.2% on the smallest houses to 12.5% on the largest flats.
The figures come from the Accommodation for Students Rental Yield Report, which measured advertised rents against local property values across 22,107 student properties in the 12 months to June 2026.
What each property type returns
- Flats with three or more bedrooms lead at 12.5%, on £30,753 of advertised annual rent against a property value of £246,386.
- Houses with six or more bedrooms follow at 9.4%, on £47,951 against £510,231.
- Two-bedroom flats return 8.9%, studios 8.5% and three to four-bedroom houses 8.4%.
- One-bedroom flats return 7.4%, and five-bedroom houses 7.0%.
- Houses with one or two bedrooms are weakest at 5.2%.
Bigger is not automatically better
The house figures do not climb steadily with bedroom count.
Three and four-bedroom houses return 8.4%, but five-bedroom houses drop to 7.0% before six-bedroom-plus houses recover to 9.4%.
The dip is a purchase-price effect rather than a rent one.
Five-bedroom houses advertise for £34,070 a year against an average value of £486,125, so the extra bedroom costs more to buy than it earns.
At six bedrooms and above, rent rises to £47,951 while the average value rises far more slowly, to £510,231.
Where each type performs best
The strongest city differs for every property type, which matters for landlords weighing a purchase outside their usual patch.
- Hull leads on one and two-bedroom houses at 11.9%, and on five-bedroom houses at 12.6%.
- Middlesbrough leads on three and four-bedroom houses at 24.3%.
- Nottingham leads on six-bedroom-plus houses at 10.6%, across 589 properties.
- Preston leads both one and two-bedroom flats, at 10.3% and 11.9%.
- Newcastle leads on flats with three or more bedrooms at 13.1%, and Liverpool on studios at 10.5%.
Gross yield is not profit
The report measures gross advertised yield, which is annual advertised rent divided by the price paid locally for property of the same type and size.
It does not account for achieved rents, void periods, running costs, licensing, tax, management fees or finance costs.
Simon Thompson, managing director of Accommodation for Students, said: “Nor is there a single type of student property that will work everywhere.
“Larger shared houses and flats can generate more rental income, but they may also bring higher purchasing, management, maintenance and regulatory costs.
“Gross yield is an important starting point, but it is not the same as profit. Landlords still need to consider achievable rents, local student demand, void periods, licensing, finance and running costs before deciding whether an individual property represents a sound investment.”
We covered the city-level table in the ten markets yielding above 10%, and the top-ranked location in our report on Middlesbrough.
