Renters in Yorkshire and the Humber pay the lowest rents in the country, at an average monthly rent of £510 pm compared to the national average of £718 per month (pm), according to the latest analysis from BM Solutions.

Average private rental payments in Yorkshire and the Humber are around a third of the average payment in London at £1,422 which is the highest in the UK (and almost double the national average).

Londoners also experienced the biggest increase in monthly rental payments in cash terms, with an average rise of £57pm in 2014. Whereas nationally, average monthly rental payments increased by 1.5% (£11) from £707 pm in the first half of 2014 to £718 pm in the second half of the year.

Despite the 1.5% increase in 2014, average gross rental yields fell slightly from 5.5% in the first half of 2014 to 5.3% in the second half of the year. Again, there is a distinct north/south divide with the highest rental yields found in the north of the country: North (6.8%), followed by the North West (6.4%), Northern Ireland (6.4%), Scotland (6.3%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (6.1%). The lowest rental yields were found in London (4.7%), followed by the South West (4.9%) and the South East (5.0%).

Nationally, the average deposit put down by buy-to-let investors in the second half of 2014 was £51,344. In London, buy-to-let investors put down an average of £120,241 – more than four times the average deposit in the North (£26,241).

Buy-to-let purchases were buoyant in the second half of 2014 with transactions from 91,800 in H1 2014 to 105,900 – an increase of 15%. Numbers of buy-to-let transactions have almost tripled since hitting an all-time low of 39,300 in the first half of 2010. However, they are still 40% below the peak of 176,500 in H2 2007.

Phil Rickards, Head of BM Solutions, said: “Demand for private rental accommodation remains strong, which continues to push rental prices up.

“However our figures show that even with increasing rental prices, the average yield investors receive has eased, driven by the increase in prices for buy-to-let properties.”