The latest Rightmove Rental Trends Tracker has revealed that Halstead has been named as the highest performing investment location outside of the capital.

Rightmove’s total returns calculator used one of the largest data sets across England and Wales, taking into account the area’s annual price growth, as well as the average rent that a landlord would collect in that time. It then uses this data to identify the locations where buy-to-let investors have seen the highest overall return on their investment.

From these calculations, Halstead, the town in the Braintree district of Essex, came out on top (26%), known for attracting investors looking for a villagey lifestyle whilst still within commutable distance to the capital.

Halstead was closely followed by Hertfordshire town Borehamwood (26%), with Essex’s Brentwood taking third place (25%). The East of England dominated the leaderboard, with the annual rental growth in the East of England standing at 6.4%, more than double the rate of Greater London locations.

“Investors and tenants who’ve been priced out of London and the South East have looked for better value areas in the East, and it seems they’ve both found a winning formula,” comments Sam Mitchell, Head of Lettings at Rightmove.

“Those landlords who bought in the East of England are seeing much higher returns on investment as the region leads the way for rental growth.  But with a combination of such high returns for buy-to-let landlords and affordable prices for first-time buyers, demand for property is high,” Mitchell adds.

In this nationwide report, it wasn’t just eastern locations that featured in the top ten investor hotspots. The Yorkshire town of Cottingham achieved a (25%) return on investment, and Ashton-Under-Lyne in Manchester made the top five most in-demand area for tenants.