Newcastle upon Tyne has been named Britain’s strongest major property investment location heading into 2027, outperforming Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester in a new study of 30 cities and investment markets.
The Beyond Stays Group Property Investor Index 2026/27 ranked locations across England, Scotland and Wales using eight measures, including rental yields, property prices, rental and population growth, employment, house-price momentum and investment in regeneration and infrastructure.
Newcastle topped the index with a score of 79.47 out of 100, ahead of Glasgow on 73.91, Liverpool on 73.13 and Manchester on 71.85. Hull completed the top five.
The top ten were:
1. Newcastle upon Tyne – 79.47
2. Glasgow – 73.91
3. Liverpool – 73.13
4. Manchester – 71.85
5. Hull – 67.60
6. Stoke-on-Trent – 64.84
7. Bristol – 60.80
8. Sheffield – 58.96
9. Birmingham – 58.23
10. Coventry – 58.09
Newcastle's high ranking was driven by a combination of relatively affordable property, strong rents and growing demand. Average monthly rent was put at £1,206 against an average property price of £207,029, producing an indicative gross rental yield of 6.99%.
Rents increased by 9.9% over the year, the highest growth recorded among the 30 locations, while currently unlet properties had spent a median of just 38 days on the market, also the strongest performance in the study. Newcastle's population grew by 7.92% over five years.
The picture was not positive across every measure, however. The index found resident payrolled employment in Newcastle had fallen by around 0.15% between May 2023 and May 2026, meaning the city scored poorly on the employment component. Its performance in the other categories was strong enough to keep it comfortably in first place.
Glasgow recorded the study's highest indicative rental yield at 8.03%, while Liverpool's relatively affordable £184,670 average property price and broadly solid performance across the different measures helped it take third.
Glasgow, aerial shot, 2025. Photo © 瑞丽江的河水 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikipedia
At the other end of the scale, Greater London ranked 28th out of 30. Although it received the maximum score for regeneration and infrastructure and had Britain's highest average rent at £2,302 a month, its £544,814 average property price and negative recent house-price momentum weighed heavily on its ranking.
Matt Thompson, founder of Manchester-based Beyond Stays Group, said the index was designed to avoid declaring a location attractive simply because it offered a high rental yield: “Newcastle didn't win by leading everything: it won by not being weak anywhere that matters.”
The company stresses that its index measures current market conditions rather than forecasting future returns. Its indicative yields also exclude costs such as mortgages, tax, maintenance, insurance, management fees and periods when a property may be empty.
The research used data from sources including the UK House Price Index, Office for National Statistics and ONS/HMRC payroll figures, alongside rental-listing data and an assessment of major regeneration projects. Northern Ireland was not included because comparable datasets were not available for the same periods.
Main image, top, of the Tyne Bridge, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Photo © csmiller2015 / magnific
