Upcoming Buy-To-Let areas for 2020

Are you planning to become a property investor in the new year, or maybe you want to expand your current portfolio? Whichever it may be, you'll want to ensure you're investing in an up and coming area in 2020. By this we mean somewhere which is growing in population and popularity, where house prices are increasing and where has great yields on rental accommodation. According to a UK development and investment company called SevenCapital, these are the top 10 cities in the UK for buy-to-lets.

Number one - Birmingham

If we don't count London, Birmingham is the fastest growing UK city. Many overseas investors have purchased property here, and there are also large investments in improvement projects in the city.

Currently there are 1.2 million people calling Birmingham their home, but this fast growth has resulted in there not being enough homes for residents. A knock-on effect of supply and demand has caused house prices to increase; 19.30% since 2014, with a prediction of a further 12.5% rise by 2022.

If we look at rental yields, they are currently reasonably high being sat between 4.4% and 5.3% (data from PropertyData).

Number two - Manchester

In second place, Manchester in the North West is ranked for best places to buy-to-let in 2020. There is plenty of budget going into renovating the city's skyline, and Manchester still attracts many young professionals.

Since 2014, prices have increased 22.09%, and rental yields are good at an average of 7.30% in Fallowfield.

Number three - Liverpool

If you're thinking of investing in Liverpool property, aim for the L7 and L1 postcodes as these achieve around an 8% rental yield.

There's exciting developments going on in Liverpool, as well as great career opportunities and rental housing demand is increasing.

It's thought that prices of property in the centre of Liverpool will increase by 2% in 2020, and rental prices by 3.5%.

Number four - Sheffield

If you're looking to purchase your first buy-to-let in 2020, Sheffield may be the choice for you. This is because it boasts some of the cheapest house prices in the UK. This doesn't mean it hasn't seen great house price growth though. Since 2014 house prices in Sheffield have increased 19.5%, and if we look as far back as 20 years they've increased 223%, which is huge.

Thanks to the cheap house prices, rental yields are excellent in Sheffield. The average at the moment is a high 7.30%. Sheffield is home to one of the top Universities outside London - The University of Sheffield - so there are vast numbers of Students in the city, particularly in areas such as Crookes and Crookesmoore.

Number five - Leeds

The number of people residing in Leeds is growing a whopping 7x faster than London. House prices have grown 17.04% since 2014, and 211% in the last 20 years. Again, this is a massive increase since 2000, but a little lower than in Sheffield.

There's a 7 billion pound development set for the city centre which is going to grow the centre of Leeds to double its current size.

For yield in rental, Leeds is one of the top in the UK at 7.6% average.

Number six - Leicester

Since 2000, Leicester's house prices have grown a ginormous 250%, 7.7% of this being last year.

Generally speaking, house prices in Leicester are cheap compared to many other UK cities. This gives it lots of scope for future growth, and gains good rental yields of 7.20%

Number seven - Nottingham

Nottingham sits centrally in the UK and therefore has excellent access to many other areas. Thanks to being a hot spot for both students and professionals, Nottingham provides a great choice of entertainment, amenities and restaurants.

Prices have increased close to 20% since 2014, and are expected to rise further in 2020.

Number eight - Oxford

World famous for its University, Oxford boasts one of the strongest economies in the UK as well as some amazing architecture making it very attractive for property investment.

In the last decade, Oxford has come 3rd in the UK for growth. However, since 2016 property prices have slowed.

Oxford is well connected to London and Cambridge, which is going to improve with the East-West Rail and Crossrail, and this could help property prices.

Number nine - Cardiff

The Welsh Capital, Cardiff is undergoing regeneration to improve central areas. Cardiff Bay has been renovated in the last few years, and the proposed South Wales Metro will be built to improve connections to other areas.

Rental yields sit at an average of 4%-6%, and it's expected that the population in Cardiff will grow the quickest of any large UK city over the next 20 years. Therefore demand for housing will increase and this could cause prices to rise.

Number ten - London

Coming up last in our top 10 cities to invest in 2020, the capital of England has seen it's popularity decreasing but is still the number one city in the world for students and ranked second for financial centres (after New York).

Since 2009, London has experienced the quickest growth in the UK with prices increasing to drastic levels. The population of 9.1 million means that we won't see a shortage in demand for rental properties.