Colliers analysed economic, educational, liveability and property indicators to rank key cities from across the UK.
Cambridge has been given top marks for residential investment opportunities, according to global commercial real estate advisers Colliers, despite the area’s high property prices.
The city ranked top for investment potential thanks to its accessible and attractive quality of life for residents, strong reputation for tech & science businesses as well as its university’s top ranking in the UK.
In Colliers’ first ever Top UK Residential Investment Cities report, the firm compared key cities across the UK against 20 indicators in the four the main areas of economics, education, liveability, and property to compile a list of top ten cities for prospective property investors to consider.
Colliers’ top ten list is:
1. Cambridge
2. Edinburgh
3. Bristol
4. London
5. Manchester
6. York
7. Belfast
8. Reading
9. Leeds
10. Milton Keynes
Andrew White, head of residential at Colliers said: “Often residential investors are attracted to the big name cities, however our analysis offers a wider perspective for investors to consider when making these decisions. We know that several of the UK markets are highly saturated and our research outlines our top ten recommendations across the country when looking at a spectrum of indicators, rather than just financial interests.
“Our analysis has confirmed our suspicions that the likes of Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh present good investment opportunities, but we’ve also identified a couple of less ‘mainstream’ options for investors to seriously consider. Belfast and Leeds rank strongly for affordability indicators, while Milton Keynes performs well for local services and rental yield scores which for some may be worth consideration.”
Residential investment in 2020 matched 2018’s all-time high of £6.1billion, and so far this year residential market activity remained elevated. March’s Housing Activity PMI was the second highest in six years and figures for construction activity, house prices, transactions and mortgage approvals all point to ongoing positivity for the market.
Oliver Kolodseike, deputy chief economist at Colliers, compiled the results. He added: “It’s easy to focus on only one element of an investment, such as the financial returns, but for those looking at a long-term, maybe personal investment, we have conducted a deeper dive across four categories of interest. By weighing these equally we’ve seen locations like Belfast, Reading and Milton Keynes enter our top ten due to the good quality of life and access to local amenities they offer. Whereas the often most popular locations such as Cambridge and London rank lower in these areas, they are still at the top end of our list due to their performance in multiple economic, education and business indicators.”
