Paragon Mortgages’ latest Buy-to-Let Index found that yields have risen to an average of 6.4%, its highest since February 2006.

This may sound like good news but when looking at actual rents received the survey found that the picture is highly regional with rents decreasing across half the country and that detached houses were the only properties to see an increase in rent over May.

Paragon’s figures show that media reports of rising rents may be accurate on an annual basis but when viewed monthly and regionally the picture is not quite so bright. On a national level average rents showed a yearly increase (+11.7%) but between April and May there was a fall (-0.8%). Out of the 10 regions surveyed, East Anglia saw the greatest monthly fall in rents (-14.2) followed by Greater London (-6%) and the North West (-4%). Of those regions that saw rents increase in this period, the West Midlands led the way (+9.4%).

The index also looked at average national rents by property type. The only property type to perform well from April to May were detached houses (+6.3%), which were also the only properties to increase in value (+1%) in this period. The types of property that fared worst from April to May were semi-detached houses (-3.9%), followed by flats (-3.1%) and terraced houses (-2.7%).

John Heron, managing director of Paragon, told PIN: “A key contributory factor to the buoyancy of rents for detached properties is that the private rented sector is no longer just the tenure of choice for people in their twenties, but increasingly provides homes for people in their thirties and forties with families. With the rising standard of accommodation in the private rented sector and home ownership being less affordable, people have increasingly seen private rented accommodation as providing a suitable long-term family home, which are typically detached property.”