Buy-to-let in Wakefield

Wakefield in figures

Gross rental yield

5.1% to 6.1%

By kind of home, across Wakefield

Entry price, across its towns

£160,000 to £198,000

The cheapest postcode district's median sale

Price move, 12 months

+2.7%

UK House Price Index, across Wakefield

Price move, 10 years

+55.5%

UK House Price Index, across Wakefield

Population

369,450

Wakefield, +5.3% growth

• Semi-detached houses across Wakefield let for £870/mo against a median sale of £205,000 there: 5.1% gross before costs, on ONS rents and sold prices for the whole authority.
• ONS puts the median rent across the whole local authority at £806/mo, which is the figure to check an asking rent against.
• Prices here rose 2.7% over the last year on the mix-adjusted UK HPI, which is measured for the whole local authority.

• Prices +56% over ten years
• £10,380 stamp duty with the 5% surcharge on a £184,000 buy-to-let
• 3 regeneration awards
• 794 homes added
• Band D £2,297
• 0.8% long-term empty
• +29% five-year forecast for Yorkshire and The Humber 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield moved +55.5% over ten years on the UK House Price Index, and prices are at or near their highest.

Employee jobs across Wakefield moved +9.9% from 2015 to 2024 (ONS Business Register and Employment Survey).

52% of the energy performance certificates lodged across Wakefield's postcode districts are below band C (59,635 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 £184,000 pays £10,380 in Stamp Duty Land Tax, including the 5% surcharge on additional homes.

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

Towns in Wakefield

Each yield is Wakefield's, for the kind of home that town's prices point to, and the year's price move is measured across Wakefield as a whole, so towns pointing to the same kind of home share a yield.

The Wakefield report

The full report measures Wakefield 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield against every other place we cover, on your own budget and strategy. Questions about the figures or about us are answered here.