Lettings guru takes a pop at Zoopla's university lettings guide

A row has broken out between one of the north east’s most prominent letting agents and Zoopla over the worst place in the UK to let a property to students. 

Zoopla has labelled the north east of England as the worst place in the country to make a profit from student buy to let, with both Sunderland and Middlesbrough named as particularly poorly performing areas.

Ajay Jagota of north east-based sales and lettings firm KIS says this simply is not the case and that rental yields are almost double those reported by Zoopla.

In a press release last week Zoopla named Middlesbrough the worst place to make a profit from students lets, offering student landlords a return of just 1.47 per cent yield on their investment.

Sunderland was named sixth worst performing area, offering property investors a return of just 2.51 per cent.

However, KIS says the yield in Sunderland is actually 4.4 per cent while Durham City and Newcastle also recorded monthly average rental yields of 4.4 per cent - both well ahead of Zoopla’s figures. 

“I’m not sure where Zoopla have got their numbers from – or how they can suggest the north east is a comparatively poor place to rent properties to students. The reality of the situation is, if you want to make a profit from a student buy-to-let property, the North East is as good a place to do it as anywhere” says Jagota.

“Rental yields in the north east have admittedly slipped slightly in recent months as rents have not kept up with house prices. But those prices are still the lowest in the country, making the region very attractive for investors at a time when mortgage rates are so low that it’s a very attractive time to invest in property in general” he says.