Pimlico/Victoria (SW1V) Leads Westminster Yields at 3.3%

Yields across 75 Westminster postcode districts range from 3.3% in Pimlico/Victoria (SW1V) down to 2.3% in Whitehall/Buckingham Palace (SW1A). That is a wider spread than the gap between the borough's buy-to-let yield of 1.9% and the holiday let yield of 0.9%, which means where you buy inside W1 and SW1 matters more than how you choose to let it. This ranking shows which Westminster postcodes lead on gross yield and explains why the pattern exists.

Pimlico/Victoria (SW1V) and Bayswater/Paddington (W2) Lead Westminster on Buy-to-Let Yield

Gross yields = annual income / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. Every property type and bedroom count can be filtered for in the dashboard.

Warning: holiday let figures apply only where legally permitted. Westminster sits inside Greater London, so the Deregulation Act 2015 caps short-term letting at 90 nights per year unless the owner secures planning permission for change of use. Airbnb automatically blocks bookings beyond 90 nights for London addresses.

Pimlico/Victoria (SW1V) Leads Because Pimlico Trades at a Discount to Its Postcode Neighbours

Pimlico/Victoria (SW1V) tops the ranking at 3.3%, with an entry price of about £1.69m that sits roughly half the Westminster median of about £3.28m. Pimlico shares its SW1 postcode prefix with Belgravia and Whitehall but has historically traded at a steep discount because much of its housing stock is mansion-block and ex-local-authority terraces rather than the white-stucco squares that command West End premiums. Rents, however, hold up well: tenants paying about £4,600 a month for a 3-bed here get Victoria mainline, the Victoria Line, and walking distance to Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament. The result is the widest rent-to-price gap in the borough.

Bayswater/Paddington (W2) follows at 2.8%, driven by the same logic. Bayswater and Paddington sit on the W2 postcode, which has lagged Mayfair and Marylebone on capital values for two decades while remaining a magnet for international tenants thanks to the Heathrow Express, the Elizabeth Line interchange at Paddington, and proximity to Hyde Park and the Westminster university campuses around Marylebone Road. The rental pool is broad: corporate relocations, Middle Eastern families on long lets, and academic professionals rotating through Imperial and UCL. Pimlico/Millbank (SW1P) ranks third at 2.5%, helped by being the SW1 district furthest from the river and closest to Vauxhall Bridge. It is the closest a Westminster postcode gets to a buy-to-let suburb in the conventional sense.

None of these top-three postcodes is a natural holiday let market once the 90-night cap is applied. Pimlico and Paddington both have steady year-round visitor demand, but the regulatory ceiling means a Westminster holiday let cannot earn more than roughly 90 days of revenue legally, so the holiday let yield columns sit below the buy-to-let yields almost everywhere in the borough. The holiday let figures shown here already assume that 90-night ceiling.

The Yield-Price Trade-Off Is Steeper in Westminster Than Anywhere Else in the UK

The pattern across the table is the textbook inverse relationship between price and yield, but the slope here is unusually steep. An investor entering at about £1.69m in Pimlico/Victoria (SW1V) faces a very different capital-risk profile from one buying at about £3.28m at the Westminster median, or about £2.81m in Whitehall/Buckingham Palace (SW1A). The cheaper postcodes do not produce more rent in absolute terms, but the ratio of rent to price is much more favourable because Westminster's premium pockets price in amenity, prestige, and capital growth expectations, not income.

That is why every postcode in this ranking still trails the wider London median yield of 4.6% and the UK median of 5.7%. Westminster's median sale price of about £3.28m is roughly five times the London median of about £632,000 and more than twelve times the UK median of about £254,000. Rents have not scaled at the same multiple, and they cannot, because tenant incomes are bounded by salaries that sit on a tighter range than property prices. The yield gap is the arithmetic consequence.

How Westminster's Best-Known Postcodes Compare on Income

For context, here is how some of Westminster's most in-demand and recognisable postcodes look on the same methodology. These are established central postcodes where investors typically accept lower yields in exchange for capital growth, currency-hedge appeal to overseas buyers, and the deepest liquidity in any UK resale market.

High-demand suburbs for context. Same methodology as the yield ranking above.

Tie the paragraph to a Westminster-specific anchor, embassy/diplomatic demand around Belgravia, the Crown Estate's St James's freeholds, or Harley Street's medical-tenant base, rather than generic 'long-duration capital assets' framing. The 90-night cap also dulls the holiday let case for these postcodes specifically, because the lifestyle appeal that would normally lift nightly rates above buy-to-let economics is constrained by how few legal nights a year an investor can actually monetise.

What the Ranking Does Not Show

Yield is rent divided by price, and a high yield can mean depressed prices rather than strong rents. Pimlico's lead does not mean it is structurally undervalued; it means current pricing leaves more income on the table than Belgravia does at today's levels. If Pimlico re-rates upward toward the wider SW1 average over the next decade, today's buy-to-let yield will compress, but the buyer will benefit from capital growth that the income ranking does not capture. Premium Westminster postcodes have a long track record of capital appreciation that, in many holding periods, has compensated for their lower running yields, though past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

The ranking also assumes city-median rent and price for each postcode. Within any of these districts, a lateral apartment in a porter-served block on a prime garden square performs very differently to a converted ex-council maisonette on the eastern edge. Vacancy risk also varies: Pimlico and Bayswater have deep, fast-moving rental pools, but parts of SW1A and SW1X let to a much narrower buyer pool that takes longer to find at the right price. Council tax bands also differ across these postcodes: under buy-to-let the tenant typically pays, but during void periods that liability falls on the landlord, and Westminster's higher bands compound that risk for the premium pockets.

View Westminster in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Even the Best Westminster Postcode Trails the UK National Median

The contrast with the wider market is stark. Pimlico/Victoria (SW1V)'s 3.3% sits below the UK national median of 5.7% by 3.8pp, and below the wider London median of 4.6%. The lowest-yielding postcodes in the ranking trail the national figure by far more. Westminster has rarely been bought for yield. The case for Westminster is more often a capital-preservation and currency-stability one, with Limited to 90 nights per year. London 90-day rule: properties without planning permission are limited to 90 nights/year of short-term letting. Applies to all London boroughs. Exceeding 90 days requires planning permission from the local council. Platforms like Airbnb automatically block bookings beyond 90 days for London addresses. For income-focused investors, Westminster is hard to justify against the UK average. For investors prioritising capital preservation in sterling-denominated central London assets, the lower yields are the price of admission to one of the world's deepest resale markets, and on that basis, Westminster is more likely to suit them. Data sources and market score methodology explain how each placeholder is derived. Edinburgh's prime postcodes face similar yield-compression dynamics, which the article After All Costs, Bromley's Holiday Let Loses to Buy-to-Let explores. After All Costs, Westminster Holiday Lets Trail Buy-to-Let covers the equivalent question for Manchester.

Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.