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News: UK slips down EU buy-to-let league table

Wed, 20 Sep 17

The UK has dropped into the bottom five European buy-to-let markets for investors as UK yields plummet, according to the latest European Buy-To-Let League Table from WorldFirst.

According to the assessment, the UK’s stuttering rental market is starting to adversely affect buy-to-let landlords with yields falling from 4.91% to 4% over the past year.

The latest findings also come more than a year after the 3% stamp duty surcharge for those acquiring additional homes was introduced, significantly increasing the cost of adding to a property portfolio.

Ireland has been identified as the number one European location for buy-to-let investments, with average rental yield increasing to 7.08% from 6.54% in 2016.

For those of you potentially interested in investing in Ireland’s buy-to-let market, it is important to note that the falling pound has led to a significant increase in cost of purchasing a property with a one bedroom apartment in an Irish city costing over £12,000 more than it would have this time last year.

2017 Rank

2016 Rank

Country

Average Rental Yield

1

1             (-)

Ireland

7.08%

2

8          (+6)

Malta

6.64%

3

3             (-)

Portugal

6.43%

4

2          (-2)

Netherlands

6.27%

5

9         (+4)

Slovakia

6.12%

6

4          (-2)

Belgium

5.96%

7

6          (-1)

Turkey

5.91%

8

7          (-1)

Bulgaria

5.77%

9

11       (+2)

Cyprus

5.70%

10

5          (-5)

Hungary

5.59%

11

10        (-1)

Latvia

5.44%

12

16       (+4)

Spain

5.39%

13

12        (-1)

Poland

5.34%

14

13        (-1)

Romania

5.17%

15

14        (-1)

Denmark

5.08%

16

22       (+6)

Slovenia

4.59%

17

18       (+1)

Estonia

4.55%

18

20       (+2)

Finland

4.52%

19

17        (-2)

Czech Republic

4.47%

20

19        (-1)

Greece

4.40%

21

21         (-)

Lithuania

4.22%

22

24       (+2)

Luxembourg

4.21%

23

28       (+5)

Italy

4.08%

24

23        (-1)

Germany

4.03%

25

15      (-10)

UK

4.00%

26

25        (-1)

Austria

3.91%

27

27          (-)

France

3.82%

28

26        (-2)

Croatia

3.82%

29

29          (-)

Sweden

3.03%

 

Edward Hardy, economist at WorldFirst, commented: “The correlation between a country’s housing sector and the health of the wider economy is clear. It may now be the case that the deteriorating dynamics of the UK’s rental market is sounding the alarm for a wider slowdown in residential housing and thereby broader economic wellbeing.

“While the UK remains in a purgatory-like state between EU membership and Brexit, long-term investment decisions have become increasingly difficult to make and falling returns for property investors could mark the beginning of the end for one of the UK’s most successful investment avenues of the past 25 years.”

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