Quantcast
Menu
Save, make, understand money

Buy To Let

St Andrews named top town for student landlords

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
17/08/2017

Landlords hoping to take advantage of the student lettings market should look to St Andrews in Scotland, according to research.

The study from Simple Landlords Insurance ranked university towns based on the yield investors can enjoy from buy-to-let properties, with St Andrews taking top spot thanks to yields of as much as 12% per annum.

The university is also ranked third in the Complete University Guide, making it highly desirable for investors and students alike.

The research looked at Largo Road, where fairly large houses cost an average of £300,000 and five students paying £150 a week could deliver collective rent of £36,000 a year for investors.

Other university towns to perform strongly, with yields above 10%, included Lancaster, Loughborough and Birmingham.

Buy for children

Alex Huntley, head of operations at Simple, noted that while academic league tables are always led by the likes of Cambridge and Oxford, neither of these locations offers the strongest yields for investors.

He added: “Rising educational costs means that more and more students are having to work to support themselves during university, meaning that many are there to work rather than just party, and often don’t deserve their bad reputation.

“One way to mitigate the risk is to invest in an area you know, for a student you know – and we’re seeing more people with children at university choosing to invest and buy a property rather than see rent going down the drain.”

Landlord university league table

University Landlord yield
St Andrews 12%
Lancaster 10.73%
Loughborough 10.53%
Birmingham 10.37%
Exeter 9.98%
Durham 9.93%
Sussex 9.6%
Nottingham 6.6%
Edinburgh 6.64%
Manchester 6.4%
York 6.14%
Warwick 5.67%
Leeds 5.63%
Bath 4.92%
UEA 4.72%
Cambridge 4.29%
Bristol 4%
Surrey 3.97%
Oxford 3.33%

Source: Simple Landlords Insurance