Opportunity to purchase a HMO property in Leeds generating £21,480 rent pa & gross yield of 11.3%

Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire. It is situated around 9 miles east of Bradford, 33 miles north of Sheffield and 39 miles northeast of Manchester.

This city is serviced by Leeds railway station, which acts as the terminus station of the East Coast Main Line and is the third busiest railway station outside of London. This station is managed by Network Rail and operates services by London North Eastern Railway, CrossCountry, TransPennine Express, Northern and East Midland Trains. This station is also used by the Metrotrain network in West Yorkshire and operates the following lines; Leeds Branch of the East Coast Main Line to London King’s Cross, Midland Main Line to London St Pancras, Airedale Line to Keighley/Skipton/Carlisle, Hallam Line to Castleford/Wakefield/Barnsley/Sheffield and many more. CrossCountry offers routes between Scotland, the Midlands and the south west of England.

The city of Leeds has an extensive retail area which is identified as the principal regional shopping centre for the whole of the Yorkshire and the Humber, generating on average £1.93bn turnover annually. There are several indoor shopping centres in the city centre such as the Merrion Centre, St John’s Centre, The Core and The Victoria Quarter to name a few. Between these shopping centres there are well over 1,000 retail stores spread across a combined floorspace of 3,660,000 square feet. The heart of this retail centre is around the largely pedestrianised Briggate where one can find all well-known British high street stores including Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, Debenhams and Harvey Nichols. The Victoria Quarter is one of the more notable shopping centres due to its collection of around 70 high-end luxury retailers such as Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood spread across two Victorian arcades.

Leeds has one of the most diverse economies of all of the UK’s main employment centres and has recently seen the largest growth in private-sector jobs in the whole of the UK. Leeds is hailed as the largest centre outside of London for financial and business services. Leeds has over 30 national and international banks that operate from the city including Barclays, Santander and RBS, as well as the headquarters of Yorkshire Bank and First Direct. Other major companies that are based in the city include William Hill, ASDA, Direct Line and many more. Leeds is also the UK’s third-largest manufacturing centre and 50% of the UK’s manufacturing firms are within a two-hour drive of Leeds.

For all these reasons and more Leeds has become a very popular location for young professionals and many graduates stay on in Leeds once they have finished their studies. Recent years have even seen an influx of graduates from all over the country due to the high number of graduate apprenticeship programmes and this demographic is the perfect target for HMOs in the city.