SOUTHAMPTON has been named as the country’s top buy-to-let hotspot.

The city topped the list compiled by HSBC bank as the best place for investors to put their cash. It found Southampton had relatively affordable houses and average rents of £901 per month.

Average property prices in the city are about £138,000 and the average annual return an investor can expect to make is 7.82 per cent.

It is worked out by calculating a year’s rental income as a percentage of how much the rental property cost in the first place.

Southampton headed the top ten with Blackpool coming second with a yearly yield of 7.81 per cent, while Hull, which is vying for city of culture status, came in third with 7.77 per cent.

South coast neighbour Portsmouth was tenth with house prices averaging £141,971 and an expected annual return of 6.55 per cent. HSBC looked at the 50 towns across England and Wales with the highest concentrations of private houses to rent.