Top cities for buy-to-let - Manchester

I've just returned from a short shopping break in Manchester. We stopped over in the Midland Hotel and eat in The French; the restaurant now run by Simon Rogan of L'enclume fame . I'm not sure that the £180 per head cost could be justified on purely business grounds, but you've got to invest your buy-to-let profits somewhere...otherwise what's the point of all that hard work.

Manchester 'Buzzing'
Whilst in Manchester it struck me yet again that this city can surely be the only one in the UK that has the scale and 'attitude' to rival London in anyway. To me it really has a buzz and with the arrival of the BBC and media city it has a feel of the edgier and trendy part of East London.  Essentially it is also a hub for financial & business services outside London with all those well paid jobs.  From a property investors point of view there is a fantastic range of new and old properties and areas to invest in and a large population of student and young professional workers looking for rental property.  Even better on the property returns front, Manchester scores very highly on the rental yield.  The latest top rental yields according to HSBC research shows that Manchester comes second with an almost 8% gross yield.

1. Southampton 8.73 per cent
2. Manchester 7.98 per cent
3. Nottingham 7.67 per cent
4. Blackpool 7.63 per cent
5. Kingston upon Hull 7.47 per cent
6. Coventry 7.09 per cent
7. Oxford 7.02 per cent
8. Portsmouth 6.5 per cent
9. Liverpool 6.5 per cent
10. Cambridge 6.48 per cent

So any investor considering a place to buy good do much worse than cast a slide rule over Manchester.  As always I would caveat this with the fact that and investor needs to do their research and lots of choice means lots of supply so any capital growth in prices will be restrained by ultimately the continued growth in demand in the area.  For those looking at capital growth in Manchester you are probably better off buying a family home in an upmarket suburb like Didsbury, with limited supply will capitalize on those affluent 20/30 somethings looking to 'settle down' and nest.

At the end of the day 'you pays your money and takes your choice.'

Landlord mortgages - expert advice - online quotes