St Andrews University tops student landlord yield table

According to research from Simple Landlords Insurance Prince William's alma mater gives landlords the chance to earn up to a 12%p.a. return.

St Andrews University tops student landlord yield table

With A-level pupils set to get their results and University places this weekSt Andrews has been revealed as the best place for landlords to achieve yields on student property.

According to research from Simple Landlords Insurance Prince William's alma mater gives landlords the chance to earn up to a 12%p.a. return.

Lancaster comes in at second place, with Loughborough and Birmingham taking third and fourth spots. All have the potential to achieve a yield of more than 10%p.a. for a student accommodation landlord. Exeter, Durham, Sussex and Nottingham also perform strongly, with yields in excess of 9.5%p.a.

Alex Huntley, head of operations at Simple, said: “We took the top universities in the country – according to the Complete University Guide and examined which offered the smartest investment opportunity. While the academic league tables are always led by Cambridge and Oxford, our study shows that neither of those locations offers the strongest yield for a buy-to-let investor.

“Unlike other studies, ours centred in on the house prices in the streets where students at each of the universities actually choose to live. It compared the cost of buying one of these properties with the rent that is actually paid by students studying at the establishments in question.”

Oxford offered the lowest value of the universities covered by the study. Properties in popular student area Iffley Road change hands for about £720,000, and could net a yield of 3.33% (£2,000 a month). That makes the high initial outlay look steep, with much less lucrative returns.

The University of East Anglia in Norwich, and Cambridge, Bristol and Surrey universities all feature towards the bottom of the table.

Huntley added: “It goes to show that with some research, there are some great investment opportunities out there for people prepared to target the student market.

“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."