Where to Buy Property Investments in Bangor: Yields to 4.8%

Investing in Bangor? See buy-to-let deals across the UK→

Bangor is a cathedral and university city in Gwynedd, on the north-west Wales coast. Average sold prices across Gwynedd sit at £201,202 on the HM Land Registry House Price Index, 5.6% below the Wales average of £213,240. That county figure is council-wide, spanning the whole of rural Gwynedd rather than Bangor itself, and it starts from £37,786 in January 1995. Inside the city, the story narrows to two postcodes: LL57, the university city centre, carries the higher yield at 4.8%, while LL59 across the Menai Strait runs dearer and quieter.

Bangor is a two-postcode market with a clear split. LL57 (Bangor City Centre) carries a £232,110 asking price and the city's only measurable rental yield at 4.8%, while LL59 (Menai Bridge, Beaumaris) reaches £313,994. That £81,884 gap, 35.3% wide, separates the compact university city from the premium coastal stock that spills across the strait onto Anglesey. The pattern is the familiar one where the cheaper, denser postcode does the income work. This guide covers Bangor across the LL57 and LL59 outcodes, and reports the area-level sold-price and growth data at the level of the Gwynedd local authority (ONS code W06000002), because that is how HM Land Registry records it.

Bangor is a small cathedral and university city on the North Wales coast, set between Eryri (Snowdonia) and the Menai Strait, about 60 miles west of Chester. The wider Cardiff buy-to-let market anchors South Wales, but Bangor's own draw is local and specific: Bangor University, Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital, and a compact centre that puts tenant demand within walking distance of both.

Article updated: July 2026

Why Invest in Bangor?

Gwynedd's population fell 3.68% between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, from 121,874 to 117,393 residents, against Wales-wide growth of 1.4% over the same decade. That is a county figure, and Bangor itself is a small city of roughly 18,000 people at the northern tip of it. A falling county population is an honest starting point: demand here does not come from broad in-migration, it rests on two specific anchors.

Those anchors are Bangor University, founded in 1884 and one of the city's largest employers, and Ysbyty Gwynedd, the district general hospital on the western edge of the city. The university brings a rotating student intake that concentrates rental demand in the LL57 city centre, close to the campus and the High Street, while the hospital and public sector provide the steadier professional tenant base. Beyond those two, the local economy leans on education, health, retail, and the tourism that flows through Bangor towards Eryri and Anglesey.

Median gross annual earnings across Gwynedd are £32,868, which is 6.0% below the Wales median of £36,353 and 12.6% below the Great Britain median of £39,125. Lower local wages set a real ceiling on open-market rents, which is part of why Bangor's yield sits where it does rather than higher: the LL57 asking price is moderate, but so is what the local tenant can pay. The 72.4% employment rate runs below the Great Britain figure of 75.6%, and unemployment at 6.1% is a little above it. The student population is what keeps LL57's rental demand firm despite the modest wage base underneath it.

Gwynedd Economic Summary

• Population (Gwynedd): 117,393 (2021 Census). Change of -3.68% from 2011.
• Median annual salary: £32,868 (local), £36,353 (Wales), £39,125 (Great Britain)
• Employment rate: 72.4% (local), 75.6% (Great Britain)
• Unemployment rate: 6.1% (local)
• Key employment sectors: Education, human health and social work, public administration, wholesale and retail, accommodation and food

Source: ONS Census 2021, Nomis Labour Market Profile for Gwynedd (ASHE 2025)

Regeneration and Investment in Bangor

Bangor's regeneration is concentrated on the High Street, led by a £2.25 million empty-property scheme and a £30 million health hub, both aimed at bringing footfall and new homes back to a city centre that has thinned out. The projects are modest in national terms but well targeted for a city this size, and they cluster in LL57, the postcode that carries the rental market.

• Bangor Empty Property Initiative (Pilot underway, £2.25 million): A scheme led by Cyngor Gwynedd, funded through nearly £1 million from the Welsh Government's Transforming Towns programme alongside the Gwynedd Town Centre Loans Fund and private contributions. Grants of up to £200,000 are available to owners to refurbish vacant High Street buildings, with the model encouraging commercial units at ground level and new apartments above. That mixed-use conversion adds residential stock directly into LL57. Updates at Cyngor Gwynedd.
• Health and Wellbeing Hub (First-stage business case submitted, £30 million): A joint project between Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Cyngor Gwynedd, and the Welsh Government to bring community health and social care services together in the Menai Centre on the High Street. It is the largest single investment planned for the city centre and repurposes a vacant anchor retail unit, adding a healthcare employment draw beside the existing hospital. Updates at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
• Tŷ Cyfle Community Learning Centre (Complete, opened March 2025): Grŵp Llandrillo Menai converted the former Topshop building on the High Street into a learning hub with four classrooms and the Bangor University Legal Advice Clinic, funded through the Welsh Government's Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme and Transforming Towns. The conversion replaced a long-vacant retail unit and brings daily student and community footfall back to the centre. Updates at Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.

Source: Office for National Statistics - Population for Gwynedd

Bangor Property Market Analysis

Average property prices across Gwynedd have risen 432.5% since January 1995, from £37,786 to £201,202. The area-level figures below are recorded by HM Land Registry at Gwynedd council level, so they span the wider rural county rather than the city alone. The sections that follow trace that price journey cycle by cycle, then drill into the postcode-level LL57 and LL59 data for sold prices, price per square foot, asking prices, growth, and monthly sales.

When was the last house price crash in Bangor?

Bangor's sold prices are recorded by HM Land Registry at the level of the Gwynedd local authority, which covers the whole county from the city out to Pwllheli, Dolgellau, and the Llŷn Peninsula. The Land Registry House Price Index tracks average prices from January 1995 to March 2026, covering 31 years of market cycles. Because the county is large and rural, these figures read as a broad regional trend rather than a street-level guide to Bangor itself.

The 1995 to 2007 boom: Gwynedd started at £37,786 in January 1995. Prices climbed steadily through the late 1990s, then accelerated through the early 2000s as second-home and holiday demand swept the coast and Eryri fringe. The county reached £134,586 by March 2006 and peaked at £154,168 in September 2007, roughly a fourfold rise on the 1995 base.

2007 to 2009, the financial crisis: Gwynedd's correction was sharp. Prices fell from the September 2007 peak of £154,168 to a trough of £122,155 in March 2009, a decline of 20.8% over 18 months. The worst single year-on-year reading was -16.2% in May 2009. A county heavily exposed to discretionary second-home and holiday buyers felt the credit squeeze quickly, as those purchases are the first to pause when lending tightens.

2009 to 2019, a slow climb back: From the March 2009 trough, Gwynedd recovered gradually. Prices did not surpass the September 2007 pre-crash peak until September 2019, when the average reached £154,835. That round trip took just over twelve years, one of the longer recoveries of any UK area and a marker of how heavily the crash sat on a rural, second-home-exposed market.

2020 to 2023, the pandemic surge: The stamp duty holiday and the rush to coastal and rural locations moved Gwynedd hard. Prices rose from £147,198 in June 2020 to £169,319 by December 2020, ran to £182,224 by December 2021, and reached £202,612 by December 2022, an 11.2% annual gain. The county recorded its all-time high of £206,516 in November 2023.

2024 to present: Higher mortgage rates and the cooling of the coastal boom pulled the average back. Prices eased to £195,072 by December 2024, a -4.1% annual fall, before recovering to £203,002 in November 2025 and settling at £201,202 by the latest March 2026 reading. The current price is 30.5% above the September 2007 pre-crash peak.

Long-term growth summary:

• 5 years (March 2021 to March 2026): 18.4% growth (£169,863 to £201,202)
• 10 years (March 2016 to March 2026): 42.2% growth (£141,475 to £201,202)
• 15 years (March 2011 to March 2026): 59.3% growth (£126,303 to £201,202)
• 20 years (March 2006 to March 2026): 49.5% growth (£134,586 to £201,202)
• 30 years (January 1995 to March 2026): 432.5% growth (£37,786 to £201,202)

Gwynedd's 20.8% crash was deeper than the England fall, and the recovery to its pre-crash peak took just over twelve years. That long correction is the backdrop to the county market a buyer enters today: prices that took longer than most to recover and still sit below the Wales average, with a market history driven as much by holiday and second-home demand as by the local wage economy. An investor who bought at the exact county peak in September 2007 would be sitting on a 30.5% gain on the Land Registry average eighteen years later.

• All property types
• Detached
• Semi-detached
• Terraced
• Flats

Source: HM Land Registry House Price Index

• All property types
• Detached
• Semi-detached
• Terraced
• Flats

Source: HM Land Registry House Price Index

Sold House Prices in Gwynedd

The average sold price across all property types in Gwynedd is £201,202, which is 5.6% below the Wales average of £213,240 as of March 2026. These sold prices are reported at Gwynedd council level rather than for Bangor alone, so they reflect the wider county. The discount to Wales runs across every property type but is deepest for flats, which sell 10.4% below the national figure, and shallowest for semi-detached houses at 2.8% below.

Detached houses across Gwynedd average £309,635, a 7.5% discount to the Wales figure of £334,744 and the widest gap of the house types. Much of the county's detached stock is coastal, rural, or second-home property spread across the Llŷn Peninsula and Eryri fringe rather than in Bangor itself, and it grew 3.1% over the year to March 2026.

Semi-detached houses at £207,057 sit just 2.8% below the Wales average of £212,913, the smallest discount of any type, and track the county-wide average closely. These are the standard family homes of Bangor's suburban streets and the county's larger villages, and they posted the strongest annual growth of any type at 3.5%.

Terraced houses at £159,622 are 6.6% below the Wales average of £170,907. The terraced stock concentrates in Bangor's LL57 city centre, in the Victorian and Edwardian streets around the university and the High Street, which is exactly the pool that feeds the student and shared-let market. Terraced prices rose 3.0% over the year.

Flats and maisonettes at £113,055 show the deepest discount at 10.4% below the Wales average of £126,165, and they are the single cheapest way into the county. Bangor's flat stock is a mix of city-centre conversions and purpose-built student blocks in LL57. Annual change of -2.3% makes flats the one type to fall over the year, a softer corner of the market.

Price Per Square Foot in Bangor

Bangor's price per square foot runs from £202 in LL57 to £265 in LL59, a £63 gap that maps onto the split between the university city centre and the coastal Menai stock. Measuring by the square foot strips out how big the homes are, so it compares the two postcodes on the underlying value of their location rather than the mix of house sizes each one holds. LL59 commands the higher rate, reflecting the premium coastal property around Menai Bridge and Beaumaris.

LL57 at £202 per square foot is the cheaper space of the two, drawn from 336 recorded transactions, a deep enough sample to read with confidence. That value reflects a city-centre stock weighted towards terraces, student conversions, and older housing rather than large detached homes, and it is the postcode where the buy-to-let numbers below hold up.

LL59 at £265 per square foot is around 31% dearer, but rests on a thinner sample of 89 transactions, so single high-value coastal sales carry more weight in the figure. That premium buys the character of Menai Bridge and, across the strait, Beaumaris on Anglesey, where waterfront and period property commands a higher rate for its position rather than its size.

For Sale Asking Prices in Bangor

LL57 at £232,110 and LL59 at £313,994 sit 35.3% apart, the full width of Bangor's two-tier market. The city-centre postcode is the value end and the Menai postcode the premium one, mirroring the per-square-foot picture. The mean asking price across the two Bangor postcodes is £273,052.

LL57 at £232,110 is the cheaper Bangor postcode and the one the rental market runs on. It sits about 15% above the Gwynedd-wide Land Registry sold average of £201,202, which makes sense: asking prices in the university city centre carry a premium to the wider rural county, where cheaper stock in the smaller towns pulls the county average down. For an investor working to a budget, LL57 is the lower barrier to entry and the postcode where the income figures work.

LL59 at £313,994 is the premium postcode. Menai Bridge sits on the Gwynedd side of the strait, but the outcode reaches across the water to Beaumaris on Anglesey, and it is that coastal, lifestyle and second-home stock that lifts the asking price. At 35% above LL57, it is owner-occupier and holiday-home territory rather than a yield play, which the rental data below confirms.

House Price Growth in Bangor

The two Bangor postcodes have moved in opposite directions: LL57 posted 15.4% asking-price growth over five years and 10.1% over the past year, while LL59 fell 1.4% over five years and 8.6% over the year. That divergence is the defining feature of this market. The city-centre postcode has carried steady demand, while the low-volume coastal postcode has given back ground as second-home buyers pulled back.

LL57 is positive across all three windows, with 10.1% over one year and 15.4% over five. The university city centre has held demand from a mix of buy-to-let investors, first-time buyers, and student-landlords chasing the terraces and smaller units near campus, and its 19 sales a month give the figures a reasonable base to stand on.

LL59 is negative across one and three years, down 8.6% and 13.4%, and marginally negative over five at -1.4%. At just 3 sales a month, the postcode is thin enough that a handful of high or low coastal transactions can swing the average, so these readings should be treated as a broad signal rather than a precise track. What they do show is a premium coastal market that rose in the pandemic surge and has cooled since, the same pattern the wider county followed.

Monthly Property Sales in Bangor

LL57 records 19 sales a month at a 12% turnover rate, against LL59's 3 sales a month and 4% turnover. The two postcodes sit at opposite ends of activity: the city centre changes hands regularly, the coastal postcode rarely. For an investor, that difference in liquidity matters as much as the price gap.

LL57 at 19 sales a month is the active market of the two, where student lets, young professionals, and owner-occupiers keep a steady flow of stock moving. Turnover, the share of local stock that changes hands in a year, runs at 12%, which points to an exit that a seller can reasonably plan around. That combination of activity and the city's top yield is what makes LL57 the postcode the buy-to-let case rests on.

LL59 at 3 sales a month and 4% turnover is one of the quietest postcodes in any city we cover. Much of its stock is second homes and long-held coastal property that rarely comes to market, so a buyer there should expect a longer sale when the time comes to exit, and should read its price and growth figures with that thin volume in mind.

How Long Properties Take to Sell in Bangor

LL57 has about 10 months of unsold stock against LL59's 14.3, so the city-centre postcode clears its for-sale supply faster than the coastal one across the strait. Months of unsold stock measures how much for-sale supply is queued at the current rate of sales, so a higher figure means a slower, more crowded market to sell into. With only a handful of sales a month in the premium postcode, that queue is the clearer read on selling speed than headline days-on-market, which is noisy on thin volume.

LL57 at 10 months of unsold stock reads as a balanced market, where a well-priced city-centre terrace or flat has a pool of student-landlords, first-time buyers, and owner-occupiers to sell into. That is the shorter of the two queues, and it sits alongside the postcode's 4.8% yield.

LL59 at 14.3 months of unsold stock is a buyer's market, where coastal and second-home stock sits longer before it moves. A holder in Menai Bridge or Beaumaris carries the cost of that wait until an exit, which is the trade-off behind the postcode's premium price and its absent rental figure.

What Type of Property Can You Buy in Bangor?

Detached houses are the largest single category in both Bangor postcodes, at 54.0% of stock in LL57 and 67.3% in LL59, while LL57 carries almost twice the terraced and flat share of the coastal postcode. The mix is what separates the two markets: LL57 holds the smaller, rentable stock the student market runs on, while LL59 skews to larger detached homes. The figures below are drawn from 2021 Census records for each postcode.

LL57 carries the town's more rentable stock, at 12.9% terraced and 4.4% flats, roughly double LL59's shares of both. That terraced and flat pool in the city centre is the natural home of single lets and shared student houses, and it lines up with LL57 holding the city's only measurable yield. The Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the university and the High Street are the stock that feeds the rental market.

LL59 is the more detached-dominated postcode at 67.3%, with terraced and flat stock together under 10%. That heavy weighting towards large detached homes is the owner-occupier and second-home profile of Menai Bridge and Beaumaris, and it is part of why the coastal postcode carries so little rental listing depth: the stock that lets easily is thin on the ground there.

The flats figure combines purpose-built blocks and converted units. A small share of non-standard dwellings is excluded, so rows may not total 100%.

Bangor Rental Market Analysis

Rental data is available for one of Bangor's two postcodes: LL57 (Bangor City Centre) returns an average monthly rent of £921 and a gross yield of 4.8%, while LL59 (Menai Bridge, Beaumaris) has too few rental listings to publish a figure. For investors asking is buy to let worth it in Bangor, that single-postcode profile is the honest picture: the city's measurable rental market is LL57, driven by Bangor University. If you are weighing how to build a property portfolio in North Wales, the section below sets out where that demand sits. Browse current buy-to-let homes for sale across the region.

Average Rent & Gross Rental Yields in Bangor

LL57 returns a gross rental yield of 4.8% on a £921 average monthly rent and a £232,110 asking price, the only measurable yield in the city. LL59 has no published rental data, so Bangor's entire buy-to-let profile rests on the one city-centre postcode. A 30% deposit of £69,633 gets an investor into LL57, where Bangor University's student intake supplies the recurring tenant demand.

LL57 at 4.8% is a solid rather than spectacular yield, and it reflects the arithmetic of a low-wage city: a £921 rent against a £232,110 asking price. Bangor rents sit below those in Cardiff or Swansea because local incomes are lower and the tenant base leans on students and public-sector workers rather than a deep professional market. What holds the yield up is the concentration of that demand in one small city centre, where the university and the terraces sit close together.

LL59 has no reliable rent or yield to report, with too few properties listed to rent at any one time to publish a figure. That is consistent with its 3-sales-a-month resale market: Menai Bridge and Beaumaris are owner-occupier and second-home areas, not a lettings market. An investor looking for income in Bangor is looking at LL57.

Is Bangor Rent High?

LL57's £921 monthly rent takes about 33.6% of the local median gross monthly salary, a touch above the widely cited 30% affordability threshold. That reflects Bangor's low local wages more than high rents: at £921 a month, the rent itself is modest, but set against a Gwynedd median income it stretches a single local earner slightly beyond the comfortable line. In practice much of LL57's rental demand comes from student households sharing the cost rather than one earner carrying it.

The median gross weekly salary across Gwynedd is £632.10, which equates to £2,739 per month or £32,868 per year. This sits below both the Wales median of £36,353 a year and the Great Britain figure. Data from the Nomis Labour Market Profile (ASHE 2025).

For a landlord, the affordability picture in LL57 is a two-part story. A single local earner on the Gwynedd median would find the rent a stretch, which caps how far open-market rents can rise. But the student market that dominates the city centre spreads the cost across a household, and student rents are underwritten by loans and parental support rather than local wages. That is why LL57 sustains its yield despite the modest income base underneath the city.

How Big Is Bangor's Private Rented Sector?

The private rented sector is far deeper in LL57, where it accounts for 22.4% of households, than in LL59 at 13.4%. The share of homes already rented privately is a guide to how established and tested the local lettings market is. The table below shows household tenure by postcode from 2021 Census records.

LL57's 22.4% private rented share is the largest in the city and sits well above LL59's 13.4%, a gap that tracks the student demand concentrated around the university. A deeper rented sector points to an active, established lettings market and a wider pool of existing tenants, and in LL57 it lines up with the terraced and flat stock that feeds those tenancies.

LL59's private rented sector is the thinner of the two at 13.4%, and its owned-outright share of 58.5% is the highest in Bangor. That is the mortgage-light, owner-occupier and second-home profile of the coastal postcode, and it is consistent with LL59 carrying too little rental stock to publish a yield at all.

Buy-to-Let Considerations

Are House Prices High in Bangor? Price-to-Earnings Ratios

Buying in Bangor takes between 7.1 and 9.6 times the local median annual salary. This is based on the Nomis Labour Market Profile for Gwynedd, which puts the median gross annual income for local residents at £32,868.

The national benchmark for price-to-earnings is 5.5x (the Wales average sold price of £213,240 divided by the Great Britain median annual salary of £39,125). Both Bangor postcodes sit above that benchmark, which reflects the gap between the city's asking prices and its lower-than-national local wages rather than any premium relative to Wales as a whole.

LL57 at 7.1x is the more affordable of the two relative to local earnings, and it pairs that ratio with the city's only measurable yield. A city-centre property at just over seven times local income, let to a student or public-sector household, is the shape of the Bangor buy-to-let case.

LL59 at 9.6x sits well above both the national benchmark and LL57. At close to ten times the Gwynedd median salary, the Menai postcode is bought by lifestyle purchasers, second-home buyers, and households trading in from higher-priced parts of Britain rather than by local earners, which is the context behind its thin sales volume and absent rental market.

Deposit Requirements in Bangor

A 30% deposit on a buy-to-let in Bangor ranges from £69,633 in LL57 to £94,198 in LL59. The £24,565 gap between the two is the cost of stepping from the city-centre value postcode up to the premium Menai stock. For an income investor, the LL57 figure is the one that matters, since it is the only postcode with a yield to earn on.

Beyond the deposit, the Wales LTT calculator and other buy-to-let running costs affect the total capital required. Buying an additional property in Wales carries the higher-rate Land Transaction Tax surcharge, which the Welsh Revenue Authority sets in bands starting at 5% up to £180,000, so budget for it on top of the deposit.

LL57 is the cheaper way into Bangor at a £69,633 deposit, and it buys the higher yield and the more active resale market at the same time. For a first buy-to-let in North Wales aimed at student and city-centre demand, it is the postcode where the numbers line up, from the 4.8% yield to the 19-sales-a-month liquidity.

LL59 asks £94,198 at 30% down for a coastal, second-home postcode with no measurable yield and a thin resale market. That capital buys the Menai Strait and Beaumaris position without a rental figure to earn on, and the postcode's 8.6% fall over the year to March 2026 shows how the premium end of this county moved through the recent cooling.

What the Bangor Data Tells Buy-to-Let Investors

In Bangor the whole income case sits in one postcode. LL57 (Bangor City Centre) has the city's only measurable yield at 4.8%, the lower asking price for an investment property in Bangor at £232,110, the active resale market at 19 sales a month, and the lower price-to-earnings ratio at 7.1x. A 30% deposit there is £69,633, for a home renting at £921 a month to a student or public-sector tenant base anchored by Bangor University.

LL59 (Menai Bridge, Beaumaris) is the other side of the market: a £313,994 asking price, no published rental yield, just 3 sales a month, and a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.6x. It fell 8.6% over the year to March 2026 and 1.4% over five years, the coastal and second-home stock that rose in the pandemic. With no measurable rent, its return so far has come from price movement rather than income, and it straddles the Menai Strait onto Anglesey rather than sitting in Bangor proper.

The honest summary is that Bangor is a narrow, single-postcode buy-to-let market rather than a city with a spread of options. That narrowness is not a flaw so much as a fact to price in: an investor here is making a focused bet on LL57 and on Bangor University's continued draw, not spreading across a range of postcodes. Buyers who want to come in below the asking price, particularly in the slower Menai postcode, tend to work the off-market property in Bangor route.

Bangor has no England-style selective licensing scheme, because Wales runs a national system instead: every private landlord must register with Rent Smart Wales, and those who manage their own lettings must also hold a licence, with Cyngor Gwynedd handling any HMO licensing on top. With its university-anchored demand, modest wage base, and a run of council-led High Street regeneration underway, Bangor's measurable rental income sits in LL57 rather than spread across a range of postcodes.

How Bangor Compares

Bangor's mean asking price of £273,052 sits mid-table among five Welsh markets, and its top yield of 4.8% is below Cardiff and Swansea but ahead of Wrexham. The comparison below places Bangor alongside four other Welsh locations, each with a different investor profile. The mean asking price is the simple average across each location's priced postcodes, and the top gross yield is the single highest postcode yield in each. Bangor's mean rent reflects its one yield-bearing postcode rather than a two-postcode average.

Bangor sits in the middle of this group on price at £273,052, cheaper than Newport and Cardiff but dearer than Swansea and Wrexham. On yield it comes fourth of the five at 4.8%, ahead of Wrexham's 4.3% but a long way behind Swansea's 8.6% and Cardiff's 7.3%. For an investor whose priority is headline income, the South Wales cities do more work than Bangor does.

Where Bangor differs is its shape. Swansea and Cardiff offer higher yields across a spread of postcodes and deeper student and professional markets; Bangor concentrates its case in a single city-centre postcode tied to one university, so the income here rests on LL57's student-led demand rather than a spread of postcodes. For a data-led view across every UK market, see our guide to the highest-yielding areas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to buy property?

Access off-market investment properties with an average 8%+ annual gross yield (beating the UK's typical 3-5%).

Get property alerts →