From cafes and restaurants to the aesthetic of the properties, there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a city to purchase a buy-to-let property, according to an update from UK’s Molo Finance.
Nowadays, a location’s social media presence is also “becoming an increasingly important measure of its popularity,” the team at Molo Finance reveals.
According to a blog post by Molo Finance, social media is a great chance “to showcase a property or neighborhood to prospective tenants, and it can be a useful tool for investors to understand how attractive a location could be for first-time landlords and renters.”
But which cities across England and Wales are the “most popular” on social media?
To find out, Molo Finance conducted new research, “analyzing social media data for some of the most populated cities across England and Wales.”
The research looks at the number of hashtags “focused on property, restaurants and cafes on both Instagram and TikTok for each city.” They then compared this “against the rental yield of the locations to determine the top places for landlords to invest.”
The team has also provided some tips “to help landlords choose the right buy-to-let location for them.”
As Molo Finance mentioned, social media can be “a helpful tool for promoting properties to prospective tenants. When it comes to property posts in particular, estate agents across the country use social media to share homes with potential renters, giving people a whistle-stop tour of a flat or house, including a roundup of prices, specifications and local amenities in the city.”
As noted in the update, the most popular locations to invest in England and Wales have been examined while looking at social media and potential rental yield. To note, London was removed from the overall ranking “due to its status as a world tourism destination.”
1 – Birmingham
Birmingham is one of the most popular cities in England and Wales “across social media and rental yield metrics.”
The city has a “combined total of 9.1 million hashtags on both TikTok and Instagram for property, restaurant and cafe-based content.”
In particular, property in the city “has inspired plenty of social media posts on TikTok, with 3.7 million hashtag views on the platform — which is a good sign of the demand for homes in Birmingham.”
2 – Manchester
With 7.3 million hashtags “focused on property and food spots on Instagram and TikTok, plus a rental yield of 5.19%, Manchester comes in second place.”
The northern city has 24,172 posts on Instagram tagged “with #ManchesterProperty — which is the highest of any city analyzed.”
Manchester is another city that “has a whole host of amenities on offer for potential renters. In particular, restaurants (5.1 million hashtag views) and cafes (1.5 million hashtag views) in the city are popular on TikTok, with a lot of content focused on roundups of the best places to eat and drink, as well as recommendations from food bloggers and influencers.”
3 – Swansea
With a total of 123,087 posts on TikTok and Instagram and “a high rental yield at 5.20%, Swansea comes in third place on our list.”
While its social media traction is significantly “less than Manchester and Birmingham, the Welsh city is still popular for its food scene, with 22,900 restaurant hashtags on TikTok and 91,100 hashtags for cafes in the city — a factor that might be a big plus for prospective tenants. Cafe-based content includes recommendations for brunch and coffee spots, plus promotional posts from the many cafes in the city.”
For the complete list, check here.
