Do renters In deprived neighbourhoods pay more? Rental yields and the poverty penalty: evidence from England and Wales

Thomas Rabensteiner and Hannah Hasenberger

No 54524, Greenwich Papers in Political Economy from University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre

Abstract: This article examines whether renters in deprived neighbourhoods face a poverty penalty in private rental markets. Using a new dwelling-level dataset, linked to granular deprivation data across more than 35,000 neighbourhoods in England and Wales, we estimate the relationship between rental yields–measured as annual rent as a share of property values–and neighbourhood deprivation. We reveal that rental yields are significantly higher in deprived neighbourhoods; tenants in these areas pay more relative to the value of the homes they occupy. To investigate the mechanisms behind this finding, we control for landlord risk factors and capital gains and find that they are associated with yields in theoretically expected directions, but the deprivation-yield gradient persists even after accounting for these factors. We further show that yields are higher where access to social housing is scarce. Taken together, our analysis provides new evidence for a poverty penalty in private rental markets.

Keywords: housing; private rental market; deprivation; poverty penalty; rental yields; housing inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-09-22
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/54524/7/54524%20R ... PREPRINT%29_2026.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gpe:wpaper:54524

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Greenwich Papers in Political Economy from University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Nadine Edwards ().