Methodology & Data Sources

Data Sources

HM Land Registry Price Paid Data

Property prices come from the HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, which records every residential property transaction in England and Wales. We filter to the last 3 years of transactions and calculate the median sale price per postcode district.

• Coverage: Every residential sale in England
• Period: Last 3 years (rolling)
• Metric: Median sale price per postcode district
• Property types: Detached, semi-detached, terraced, flats, and other

Postcode districts with fewer than 30 transactions in the 3-year period are flagged as low confidence.

ONS Private Rental Market Statistics

Monthly rent data comes from the ONS Private Rental Market Statistics (formerly published by the Valuation Office Agency). This provides median monthly rents per local authority district.

• Coverage: All local authorities in England
• Period: October 2022 to September 2023 (latest available)
• Metric: Median monthly rent per local authority
• Note: Rent data is at local authority level, not postcode level

ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD)

Geographic mapping uses the ONS Postcode Directory, which links every UK postcode to its local authority, region, and geographic coordinates.

• Version: November 2025
• Used for: Postcode-to-LA mapping, LA-to-region mapping, and nearest neighbour calculation

Yield Calculation

Gross Rental Yield Formula

For example, if the median property price in a postcode district is £250,000 and the median monthly rent in its local authority is £850:

Important Limitations

• Gross, not net: This yield does not account for landlord costs such as mortgage interest, maintenance, insurance, void periods, or management fees. Use our yield calculator to estimate net yield.
• Rent granularity: Rent data is published at local authority level, not postcode level. All postcode districts within the same council share the same rent figure. This means yields within a single LA reflect price differences rather than rent differences.
• Data currency: Rental figures are from the ONS PRMS series (October 2022 – September 2023), the last published period before the series was discontinued. Property prices cover the 3-year rolling window ending Q1 2025. Yield figures therefore reflect the relationship between recent purchase prices and the most recent available rents.
• Medians, not averages: We use median values throughout, which are less affected by extreme outliers than mean averages.

Geographic Scope

RentalYield.uk currently covers England only. The Land Registry covers England and Wales, but the ONS rental statistics only cover England. Scotland and Northern Ireland use separate data systems.

Neighbour Calculation

Each postcode district page shows 6 nearby postcode districts for comparison. Neighbours are calculated using the haversine formula based on the centroid (average latitude and longitude) of all postcodes within each district.

Update Frequency

Property prices: Updated quarterly. The Land Registry publishes monthly data; we incorporate new transactions on a quarterly basis. The current dataset covers the 3-year rolling window ending Q1 2025.

Rental data: The ONS Private Rental Market Statistics series was discontinued in 2023. The final published dataset covers October 2022 to September 2023. This is the most recent government rental data available at local authority level. We will update this data if a comparable replacement series is published.

Open Data

All source data is freely available from the UK government. We believe rental yield data should be free and transparent, which is why RentalYield.uk provides all calculations at no cost.

• HM Land Registry Price Paid Data
• ONS Private Rental Market Statistics
• ONS Postcode Directory