Student Property Investment Leeds

Thanks to the perfect blend of affordability and high rental income, the return potential of the Leeds student property market is one of the best in the UK.

According to official Land Registry data, the average house price in Leeds is valued at £235,566.

While this is higher than Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham’s, it’s still an impressive £49,443 below the UK average.

More importantly, this average is for the entire Leeds housing market, with Leeds student investment property available for as low as £50k.

Factoring in annual rental income estimated to be around £7,683, property investors making a Leeds student accommodation investment could net returns between 8 – 15%.

It gets better:

Leeds student rental income has been known to rapidly increase over the years, with the average annual rental cost for student accommodation increasing from just over £4,000 to almost £6,000 between 2011 to 2018.

It’s understandable, then, that research from Paragon ranked Leeds in the top 10 best places for investing in student accommodation.

Leeds currently offers four top-class universities, which is one of the major reasons behind the large student numbers in the city.

These universities include:

• The University of Leeds
• Leeds Beckett University (formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University)
• Leeds Arts University
• Leeds Trinity University

But while the number of universities is certainly an attraction to Leeds, it’s the quality of these institutions that sets the city apart from many others in Europe.

The University of Leeds is ranked 20th out of 130 universities in the Complete University Guide – just one behind Birmingham.

Leeds students enjoy the city so much, in fact, that around 39% choose to stay and work in the city, the fifth-highest graduate retention rate in the UK.

This is a good sign for investors and opens the door to alternative property investments in the city to diversify a portfolio.

The University of Leeds

While Leeds has four excellent universities, likely the best amongst them is the University of Leeds.

Established in 1904, the University of Leeds is one of the largest universities in the UK and is part of the prestigious Russell Group, a collection of 24 world-class research universities in the UK.

The university is industry-leading in many sectors, with its Criminology, Civil Engineering, and Agriculture courses all ranking second in the UK.

For this reason, it’s unsurprising that Leeds also ranks highly on the global stage, ranked in the top 100 universities in the 2021 QS World University Rankings.

This comes after several years of success, with the University of Leeds ranked as the 2017 University of the Year by The Times and The Sunday Times’ Good University Guide.

For those choosing a student property investment in Leeds, you have two main options:

1. Purpose-Built Student Accommodation
2. Student HMOs

Both of these strategies have their own set of pros and cons (read our 2023 student property investment guide to learn more), but likely the best choice is purpose-built student accommodation.

Not only are PBSA apartments more affordable than HMOs, but they’ve quickly become the preferred choice for students thanks to the modern lifestyle on offer.

With attractive features like superfast Wi-Fi, onsite security, and communal areas for tenants to socialize, this new type of luxury student living is overtaking the more traditional shared housing style of student property.

This type of purpose-built accommodation is on the rise across the UK, with £5.77 billion spent on PBSA in 2020 – a record-breaking high.