Buy-to-let in Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets in figures

Gross rental yield

6.2%

On flats across Tower Hamlets

Entry price

£437,500

The cheapest postcode district's median sale

Price move, 12 months

-13.0%

UK House Price Index, across Tower Hamlets

Price move, 10 years

-8.6%

12.0% below the year to February 2022, across Tower Hamlets

Homes below EPC band C

21%

Of lodged certificates, a proxy for the condition of the stock

Population

334,240

Tower Hamlets, +8.9% growth

• Flats across Tower Hamlets let for £2,280/mo against a median sale of £445,000 there: 6.2% gross before costs, on ONS rents and sold prices for the whole authority.
• ONS puts the median rent across the whole local authority at £2,453/mo, which is the figure to check an asking rent against.
• Prices here moved -13.0% over the last year and -8.6% over ten years on the mix-adjusted UK HPI, and sit 12.0% below their highest twelve months (to February 2022): part of the yield here is prices that fell, not rents that rose.

• Prices −9% over ten years, 12% below the year to February 2022
• Financial and insurance activities: 20.9% of jobs against 3.3% across Great Britain
• 21% of EPCs below band C
• £33,750 stamp duty with the 5% surcharge on a £437,500 buy-to-let
• 1 regeneration award
• 1,581 homes added
• 38% private rented (2021 census)
• 82% gigabit broadband
• 95% of 40 graded schools good or better
• Band D £1,838
• 1.5% long-term empty
• +14% five-year forecast for London 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 Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets moved −8.6% over ten years on the UK House Price Index, and the latest year's average is 12.0% below its highest, the year to February 2022. A gross yield is rent over price, so part of the 6.2% here comes from prices that fell rather than rents that rose. Clarity's ranking takes the annualised fall, 0.9 points a year, off the yield before scoring it.

Financial and insurance activities is 20.9% of employee jobs in Tower Hamlets, against 3.3% across Great Britain (73,000 jobs in 2015, 73,000 in 2024). Where one industry carries that much of a local economy, rents and prices tend to move with it. Employee jobs across Tower Hamlets moved +24.6% from 2015 to 2024 (ONS Business Register and Employment Survey).

21% of the energy performance certificates lodged across Tower Hamlets's postcode districts are below band C (135,257 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 £437,500 pays £33,750 in Stamp Duty Land Tax, including the 5% surcharge on additional homes.

The five-year forecast quoted above (Savills, London) is a regional figure for London as a whole, not a forecast for Tower Hamlets, and Clarity does not rank on it.

The Tower Hamlets report

The full report measures Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets report, free, with its headline figures, before you decide.

Read a full Liverpool report, free to see everything a report contains.

Compare it with everywhere else

The investment map ranks Tower Hamlets against every other place we cover, on your own budget and strategy. Questions about the figures or about us are answered here.