Britain’s oldest town, Colchester, is the best place to invest in property right now across England and Wales, according to a quarterly report Thursday by LendInvest.
The U.K.-based property lending and investing platform ranked 105 postcode areas around the two countries for their buy-to-let index based on four metrics: capital value growth, transaction volumes, rental yield and rental price growth.
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Colchester, in Essex, moved to the top spot after holding second place since September 2017 with an average rental yield of 3.71%, capital gain of 9.98%, rental price growth of 3.41% and sales volume growth of 2.79%, according to the report. All figures were compared to 12 months previously.
The earliest record of the town's existence is a reference by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder in the year 77.
It took the No. 1 spot from the city of Manchester, which was relegated to the sixth best place to invest.
In second place is Northampton in Northamptonshire, which has climbed 19 places since the last quarterly index in December 2017, with an average rental yield of 4.12% capital gain of 10.02%, rental price growth of 2.38% and sale volume growth of 1.53%, the report said.
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The worst place for investing is Crewe, Cheshire, with a yield of 3.69%, capital gains of 1.93%, rental price growth of 1.1% and sales volume growth of 0.87%.
"Striking the right balance when it comes to making property investment decisions is crucial," said Ian Boden, sales director at LendInvest, in the report. "However, the current limitations in house price growth mean fewer opportunities in the market to perform a traditional ‘flip’ of a property to get a return."
"We can expect to see investors taking longer-term positions in property as they look to yields and rental price growth as valuable metrics in the short-term to determine the profitability of an asset," he added.