Edinburgh’s leading property portal, ESPC, has unveiled the best-performing postcodes for rental yields during the first quarter of 2024.
The analysis, which integrates rental data from Citylets and house price information from ESPC, identified EH5, EH9, EH11, and EH12 as the prime locations for buy-to-let investors.
The EH5 district, attracting a mix of young professionals and residents looking for value in areas like Trinity, Inverleith, Granton, and Pilton, offered average rental yields of 5.7% for one-bedroom properties and 5% for two-bedrooms.
EH9, encompassing student-favourite Newington and affluent Marchmont and the Grange, was notable for one-bedroom homes yielding 6.1%.
EH11, covering diverse neighbourhoods from Gorgie to Slateford, showed strong performance across all property sizes, with one-bedroom and two-bedroom homes both yielding 5.4%, and three-bedroom properties achieving an impressive 8.4%.
EH12, spanning Corstorphine to Murrayfield, also showed robust yields, particularly for one-bedroom homes at 5.5%.
Nicky Lloyd, head of ESPC Lettings, commented on the market conditions: “The opening months of 2024 were the calmest Edinburgh has experienced for some time; increases in rental rates were smaller than we’ve seen of late, and the average ‘time to let’ was slower, allowing tenants more opportunities to find their next home. However, despite things being calmer overall, there continued to be incredibly high demand for homes of all sizes, from tenants across a range of life stages.”
Lloyd also highlighted the significant demand for one-bedroom properties and the financial pressure facing tenants: “One-bedroom properties proved especially in-demand across the board, which is particularly interesting given that the latest Citylets data reveals that the average cost for a one-bed in Edinburgh costs much the same as the Scottish national average rate for a two-bedroom property.
“This highlights the additional financial pressure on tenants living in Edinburgh versus anywhere else in Scotland.
“Despite this, demand remains incredibly high, and this latest update on rental yields proves there is much opportunity for would-be landlords thinking of entering the sector.”
