Buy-to-let in Cornwall
Yields, prices, demand and local risks for Cornwall, covering Bodmin, Bude, Callington and 23 more ranked towns.
Cornwall in figures
- Gross rental yield
- 4.8% to 5.5%
- By kind of home, across Cornwall
- Entry price, across its towns
- £190,000 to £355,000
- The cheapest postcode district's median sale
- Price move, 12 months
- +3.7%
- UK House Price Index, across Cornwall
- Price move, 10 years
- +36.4%
- 6.2% below the year to July 2023, across Cornwall
- Population
- 584,782
- Cornwall, +3.5% growth
- Flats across Cornwall let for £810/mo against a median sale of £175,000 there: 5.5% gross before costs, on ONS rents and sold prices for the whole authority.
- ONS puts the median rent across the whole local authority at £1,000/mo, which is the figure to check an asking rent against.
- Prices across Cornwall rose 3.7% over the last year on the mix-adjusted UK HPI, which is measured for the whole local authority.
- Prices +36% over ten years, 6% below the year to July 2023 (Cornwall)
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 5.1% of jobs against 1.4% across Great Britain (Cornwall)
- £10,975 stamp duty with the 5% surcharge on a £192,500 buy-to-let
- 1 regeneration award (Cornwall)
- 2,237 homes added across Cornwall
- Band D £2,591 (Cornwall)
- 1.2% long-term empty across Cornwall
- +21% five-year forecast for South West 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 Cornwall 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 Cornwall moved +36.4% over ten years on the UK House Price Index, and the latest year's average is 6.2% below its highest, the year to July 2023.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing is 5.1% of employee jobs in Cornwall, against 1.4% across Great Britain (13,000 jobs in 2015, 13,000 in 2024). Where one industry carries that much of a local economy, rents and prices tend to move with it. Employee jobs across Cornwall moved +11.9% from 2015 to 2024 (ONS Business Register and Employment Survey).
56% of the energy performance certificates lodged across Bodmin's postcode districts are below band C (10,301 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.
A buy-to-let at £192,500 pays £10,975 in Stamp Duty Land Tax, including the 5% surcharge on additional homes.
The five-year forecast quoted above (Savills, South West) is a regional figure for South West as a whole, not a forecast for Cornwall, and Clarity does not rank on it.
Towns in Cornwall
| Town | Entry price | Gross yield | Tenant demand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodmin | £192,500 | 5.5%flats | 4.7/10 |
| Bude | £277,500 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.5/10 |
| Callington | £192,500 | 5.5%flats | 4.4/10 |
| Camborne | £205,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 4.5/10 |
| Falmouth | £310,000 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.7/10 |
| Fowey | £305,000 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.9/10 |
| Gunnislake | £220,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 4.2/10 |
| Hayle | £247,500 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5.2/10 |
| Helston | £239,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5.2/10 |
| Launceston | £190,000 | 5.5%flats | 4.5/10 |
| Liskeard | £205,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 4.6/10 |
| Looe | £222,500 | 5.4%terraced houses | 4.9/10 |
| Lostwithiel | £240,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5.1/10 |
| Newquay | £270,000 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.5/10 |
| Par | £208,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 4.6/10 |
| Penryn | £244,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5.2/10 |
| Penzance | £235,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5.2/10 |
| Perranporth | £255,000 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.4/10 |
| Redruth | £226,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5.1/10 |
| Saltash | £235,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5/10 |
| St Agnes | £355,000 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.9/10 |
| St Austell | £190,000 | 5.5%flats | 4.7/10 |
| St Columb | £210,500 | 5.4%terraced houses | 4.8/10 |
| Torpoint | £217,000 | 5.4%terraced houses | 5.2/10 |
| Truro | £250,000 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.5/10 |
| Wadebridge | £270,000 | 4.8%semi-detached houses | 5.4/10 |
Each yield is Cornwall's, for the kind of home that town's prices point to, and the year's price move is measured across Cornwall as a whole, so towns pointing to the same kind of home share a yield.
The Cornwall report
The full report measures Cornwall 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 Cornwall report, free, with its headline figures, before you decide.
You own this report
The latest Clarity PDF report for Cornwall, monthly rebuilds included.
Read a full Liverpool report, free to see everything a report contains.
Compare it with everywhere else
The investment map ranks Cornwall 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)
- HMRC: Stamp Duty Land Tax