Buy-to-let in Cardiff
Yields, prices, demand and local risks for Cardiff, from official UK data.
Cardiff in figures
- Gross rental yield
- 7.2%
- On flats across Cardiff
- Entry price
- £180,000
- The cheapest postcode district's median sale
- Price move, 12 months
- +2.8%
- UK House Price Index, across Cardiff
- Price move, 10 years
- +47.0%
- UK House Price Index, across Cardiff
- Homes below EPC band C
- 46%
- Of lodged certificates, a proxy for the condition of the stock
- Population
- 381,516
- Cardiff, +5.9% growth
- Flats across Cardiff let for £1,000/mo against a median sale of £167,000 there: 7.2% gross before costs, on ONS rents and sold prices for the whole authority.
- ONS puts the median rent across the whole local authority at £1,177/mo, which is the figure to check an asking rent against.
- Prices here rose 2.8% over the last year on the mix-adjusted UK HPI, which is measured for the whole local authority.
- Prices +47% over ten years
- 46% of EPCs below band C
- £9,000 Land Transaction Tax at Wales's higher rates on a £180,000 buy-to-let
- 1 regeneration award
- 24% private rented (2021 census)
- 90% gigabit broadband
- Band D £2,013
- +28% five-year forecast for Wales as a whole (Savills), not this area
These figures are from Clarity's monthly ranking dataset, one method across every place so they compare. The Cardiff report measures the area in more depth over its own twelve months, so its figures are the ones to quote.
What sits behind the figures
Prices across Cardiff moved +47.0% over ten years on the UK House Price Index, and prices are at or near their highest.
Employee jobs across Cardiff moved +9.6% from 2015 to 2024 (ONS Business Register and Employment Survey).
46% of the energy performance certificates lodged across Cardiff's postcode districts are below band C (133,216 certificates). Clarity measures areas rather than individual homes, so this is the share of the local stock likely to need energy-efficiency work before it meets a band C standard, not a survey of any one property.
The five-year forecast quoted above (Savills, Wales) is a regional figure for Wales as a whole, not a forecast for Cardiff, and Clarity does not rank on it.
The Cardiff report
The full report measures Cardiff from its own sales: sold prices and rents for each type of home, the year's price move, crime per resident and worker, flood risk, planning designations, housing delivery and regeneration funding, with a worked buy-to-let deal on your own budget. This edition was built in October 2026.
Read the cover of the Cardiff report, free, with its headline figures, before you decide.
You own this report
The latest Clarity PDF report for Cardiff, monthly rebuilds included.
Read a full Liverpool report, free to see everything a report contains.
Compare it with everywhere else
The investment map ranks Cardiff against every other place we cover, on your own budget and strategy. Questions about the figures or about us are answered here.
Sources and further reading
- HM Land Registry: UK House Price Index
- HM Land Registry: Price Paid Data (England and Wales)
- Registers of Scotland: property market statistics (Scotland)
- ONS: Price Index of Private Rents
- ONS: Population estimates
- ONS: Business Register and Employment Survey
- MHCLG: Energy Performance of Buildings Data (England and Wales)
- Welsh Revenue Authority: Land Transaction Tax