Buying property in the right areas is crucial for landlords, so where in the UK can you benefit from attractive returns in 2025?
Read on to find out the top towns and cities attracting property investors based on analysis of data from Simply Business and Rightmove.
In this article we cover:
Where are the fastest-growing buy-to-let areas?
A fast-growing rental market could indicate high demand from tenants and strong average rental growth.
All of this could contribute to higher annual returns for landlords, particularly if they target areas with lower than average property prices.
Our analysis of over 100,000 landlord insurance policies found that London had the highest growth* (13 per cent) in new policies between 2023 and 2024.
The English capital was followed by Midlands cities Birmingham and Leicester, which both recorded growth of 12 per cent.
The top five was completed by Leeds (11 per cent), Manchester, and Nottingham, both with annual growth of 10 per cent.
As well as taking the top spot for annual growth, London also had by far the highest number of landlord insurance policies.
Top 10 fastest-growing buy-to-let areas
2025 ranking | Area | Region | Annual growth* | 2024 ranking |
1 | London | London | 13% | 10 |
2 | Birmingham | West Midlands | 12% | 6 |
3 | Leicester | East Midlands | 12% | 5 |
4 | Leeds | Yorkshire and the Humber | 11% | 3 |
5 | Manchester | North West | 10% | 7 |
6 | Nottingham | East Midlands | 10% | 2 |
7 | Bristol | South West | 9% | 4 |
8 | Edinburgh | Scotland | 9% | 9 |
9 | Liverpool | North West | 8% | 8 |
10 | Glasgow | Scotland | 7% | 1 |
*The difference in new Simply Business landlord insurance policies bought between 2023 and 2024
Revealed: The UK’s 10 busiest rental markets
A busy rental market tends to be a positive sign for landlords. It usually means there’s a supply/demand imbalance, with more renters than properties available.
This can improve the chances of landlords letting their properties quickly and having the option to choose the most suitable tenants.
Property website Rightmove analysed rental markets across the UK to find the highest number of tenant enquiries for each property.
Wrexham in North Wales had the busiest rental market in 2024, with an average of 54 tenant enquiries for each available property.
The rest of the top 10 were:
- Glasgow, Scotland (52 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Bristol, South West (51 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Plymouth, South West (50 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Wirral, North West (47 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Salford, North West (47 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Stockport, North West (46 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Oldham, North West (45 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Tameside, North West (45 average tenant enquiries for each property)
- Bath and North East Somerset, South West (45 average tenant enquiries for each property)
The research shows how overall demand for rental properties dipped by 16 per cent in 2024 when compared with the previous year.
However, the long term trend suggests that tenant demand remains high and supply of rental homes is low. Compared to 2019, there were 17 per cent more tenants looking to move in 2024, and 32 per cent fewer homes. average of 20 tenant enquiries in 2023, up from six (more than 200 per cent higher) in 2019.
Read more: What is buy-to-let investment? A guide to buying and selling property
Where are the best investment properties for HMO landlords?
Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) are larger properties that can be let to three or more people from more than one household who share living facilities.
For example, a house share of five young professionals would count as a ‘large HMO’. Read our guide to HMOs for further details.
To successfully let an HMO, you need to be operating in the right market – somewhere with lots of students or young professionals could be an ideal location.
If you’re looking to buy and rent out a larger property, here are the top five hotspots where we insured the most HMO landlords during 2024:
- London
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Manchester
- Leeds
- Cardiff
- Nottingham
- Edinburgh
- Liverpool
- Coventry
It’s no surprise that all of these cities have universities and strong employment markets, making them popular with young professionals – and so appealing to HMO landlords.
Where are the best buy-to-let areas for portfolio landlords?
Although the majority of landlords own one property, for some investors the ultimate aim is to build a property portfolio.
These landlords usually start out with one property, using the returns to buy their next property and so on.
Investors with several properties sometimes specialise in a particular niche, such as student property, or focus on a certain location.
If you’re looking to expand your portfolio in 2025, these are the areas with the most multi-property landlords:
- London
- Manchester
- Birmingham
- Nottingham
- Glasgow
- Liverpool
- Edinburgh
- Bristol
- Leeds
- Leicester
Similar to the HMO hotspots, it’s unsurprising to see that portfolio landlords focus on big cities with high rental demand and lots of property options to choose from.
Read more: The ultimate guide to building a property portfolio
Popular buy-to-let investment areas by property type
The type of property you rent out is likely to have an impact on the prospective tenants it attracts.
For example, houses could be more popular with families, while flats may appeal to young professionals, and bungalows could be more suitable for older renters.
We’ve taken a closer look at where the most landlords took out insurance policies for different property types during 2024.
Houses
The top hotspot for detached houses was Nottingham, while London was most popular for terraced and semi-detached houses.
Maisonettes and bungalows
London was the most popular location for landlords renting out maisonettes, followed by Birmingham and Southampton.
Meanwhile, Nottingham, Norwich, and Leicester were the top buy-to-let areas for bungalows.
Flats
The top UK area for flats was London, followed by Scottish cities Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, with Manchester completing the top five.
Where are you looking to buy property in 2025? Let us know in the comments below.
Useful guides for buy-to-let landlords
- How to do a landlord tax return
- Landlord checklist – what to do before renting out a property
- How can landlords get a buy-to-let remortgage?
- What does landlord insurance cover?
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