Property is a major component of personal wealth in Britain, whether it's owning a home to live in or buying a house to rent out.
In recent years, property owners have seen their assets soar in value, as a severe housing shortage has pushed up prices across most of the UK.
Rents have also surged, driven by a fall in home ownership as young people find it harder to take their first step onto to the housing ladder.
Photo: Homelet
For buy-to-let investors, the returns have become even more lucrative, depending on the areas of the UK in which they are investing.
Investors with properties in the North West and Wales are doing particularly well, according to data from property lending firm LendInvest, which has calculated the average annual yield that property owners across England and Wales have made over the past five years.
Manchester, Liverpool and Cardiff are named as the three UK cities where landlords have made the highest returns. Since 2010, property investors have made average annual rental yields of 6.02pc in Manchester, 5.16pc in Liverpool and 5.10pc in Cardiff.
This compares to an annual yield of 4.79pc in London.
Photo: LendInvest
Rental yield is calculated by dividing a property’s price by the yearly rent. For example, the yield on a flat priced at £500,000, commanding a rent of £44,200 a year - or £850 a week - would be 8.8pc. However, this figure doesn't take into account the costs associated with owning a property, such as mortgage payments and interest, insurance, ground rent and ongoing maintenance.
While rents in London are by far the highest of any place the UK, the cost of buying a property has risen to record levels, reducing the amount investors are making each year on their investment. The capital is therefore ranked 18th in the UK for annual rental yields.
However, for those landlords relying on house price growth to boost their return, London outranks anywhere else for capital gains. In fact, all top 15 performing postcode areas for capital gains are located in London and the surrounding regions.
Capital gains 2010-2015 (London on the right)
For buy-to-let investors, the returns get higher the longer they own a property. This is mainly because of the property increasing in value over time. For those investors on a repayment mortgage, they will also see the amount they owe their lender - and the amount of interest they pay to the bank - fall over the years.
Landlords on interest-only loans, where the capital sum is not repaid, enjoy lower monthly outgoings than those who repay both interest and capital. That often means that the rental income they get from their properties is more than enough to offset interest repayments and other bills, leaving landlords with a monthly surplus.
Across Britain, there are now 5.6m households living in rented homes. Since the start of the recession, rents have risen by 26.7pc compared to wage growth of 15.6pc.
Total rent collected by landlords has risen 17.9pc over the past year to £5bn a month, according to recent data from Kent Reliance, which is owned by OneSavings Bank.
The Government has recently introduced a number of tax hikes directed at buy-to-let landlords to take action against the "growing crisis of home ownership" in Britain.
The total value of landlords’ holdings across Britain has now hit £1.2 trillion, growing £171bn in the past year alone.