Specialist lender, Fleet Mortgages, reveals a rise in rental yield across England and Wales with the use of its BTL barometer.
Across England and Wales, the rental yield has risen from 6% in Q1 2022 to 6.5% in Q1 2023.
The North East of England had the top regional rental yield for the eleventh consecutive quarter — up 0.6% on the previous quarter.
Yorkshire and Humberside jumped into second with a yield of 7.7%, while Wales was the significant mover — up 1.1% annually and 0.6% quarter-on-quarter.
Fleet have attributed these numbers to low housing stock and high demand, as well as house prices levelling off over the past six months.
The lender has also reported its average five-year fixed-rate product rate reduce from 5.81% in the last quarter of 2022, to 5.35% this quarter — it said this was down to swap rates continuing to track lower and its own strong appetite to lend to landlord borrowers.
Despite an increase in rental yields in every region, the number of rents has not increased at all.
Steve Cox, chief commercial officer at Fleet Mortgages, commented: “This quarter contains a raft of new data and information on what is happening in the private rental sector and how the BTL mortgage market is shifting in order to accommodate the changing needs and circumstances of landlord borrowers.
“The market continues to predominantly be the preserve of portfolio landlords, particularly as those with only one or two properties struggle to stay profitable given the rise in mortgage costs.
“Purchase activity has slipped slightly but is still over a third of our business and this is coming from portfolio players continuing to purchase residential property with a long-term investment horizon. We do not see that tailing off any time soon.”
