Crewe (CW1) Tops Cheshire East at 8.2% Yield

Yields across 117 postcodes in Cheshire East range from 8.2% in Crewe (CW1) down to well below the county median of 5.1% in premium commuter postcodes. That spread is wider than the gap between holiday letting and buy-to-let at the county level, which means where you buy in Cheshire East matters more than how you let it out. This ranking shows which postcodes lead on gross yield and explains why the Crewe corridor pulls so far ahead of the Cheshire "Golden Triangle".

Crewe (CW1) Leads on Yield at 8.2%, Crewe Corridor Dominates the Top Five

Gross yields = annual income / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. The dashboard shows every property type and bedroom count.

Why the Crewe Corridor Beats Cheshire's Premium Postcodes

Crewe (CW1) tops the table because rents in Crewe have not fallen anywhere near as fast as prices. Crewe is a major West Coast Main Line junction with direct trains to London Euston, Manchester and Birmingham, plus Bentley Motors as the largest single private employer in Cheshire East and a South Cheshire College further-education campus. That tenant base of skilled manufacturing workers, rail commuters and students keeps two-bed and three-bed terraces fully let at £1,210 per month while entry prices remain near £176,950, well below the county median of £273,054.

Crewe South (CW2) sits just behind at 7.9% for similar reasons, with newer housing stock around the Leighton hospital catchment and the southern approach to the Bentley plant. Middlewich (CW10) comes in third at 6.0%, driven by Middlewich's salt-industry heritage, modest period stock and proximity to the M6 corridor. These three postcodes share a pattern: working towns where the local economy supports steady tenant demand without the price premium that comes from being a Manchester commuter postcard.

Nantwich (CW5) and Sandbach (CW11) round out the top five but follow a different logic. Nantwich is a Tudor market town on the Shropshire Union Canal with strong leisure-tourist demand, so a holiday letting strategy may outperform the headline buy-to-let yield of 5.8% for an investor who can run weekend short stays effectively. Sandbach trades on its M6 access and grammar-school catchment, attracting family tenants paying near £1,116 per month on long leases. Both are buy-to-let postcodes first, with holiday letting as a secondary thesis rather than the headline play.

The Yield-Price Trade-Off Is Steeper Than the Income Premium Suggests

An investor entering at £176,950 in Crewe (CW1) versus £273,054 at the county median faces a very different capital-risk profile. The Crewe entry point is roughly 35% cheaper per house, but the tenant pool is concentrated in a handful of large employers. If Bentley scales back production, or if rail patronage drops, vacancy risk in Crewe rises faster than in a more diversified town. The Cheshire commuter belt of Wilmslow, Knutsford and Macclesfield trades the other way: lower headline yields, but rents and prices anchored to Manchester professional incomes that have proven durable through multiple downturns.

The price spread across the county is large, running from £176,950 at the cheapest end to £469,330 at the top. That is a gap of more than two and a half times across a single council area, while monthly rents do not stretch anywhere near as far. The simple maths is that the cheaper postcodes will always yield more on income, but they tend to give back ground on capital growth over a 10-year hold.

Cheshire's Golden Triangle Yields Less but Carries Less Concentration Risk

For context, here is how some of Cheshire East's most in-demand postcodes compare. These are established premium areas where investors typically accept lower yields in exchange for capital growth, liquidity and tenant covenant strength.

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

These postcodes yield less on buy-to-let because headline rents do not scale linearly with headline prices: a more expensive detached house in Alderley Edge does not let for proportionally more than a smaller terrace in Crewe. The premium thesis is capital growth, professional tenant quality and liquidity at exit, not income. Holiday letting changes the picture only marginally because outside national-park or canal-tourism postcodes, weekend short-stay demand in the Cheshire commuter belt is thinner than the gross-revenue maths suggests.

What the Yield Ranking Doesn't Show

A high gross yield can mean depressed prices rather than strong rents. Crewe (CW1)'s 8.2% is partly a story about Crewe sale prices being held down by a large stock of older terraced housing and a soft owner-occupier market, not just about rents being unusually high. If Crewe prices re-rate upward (further HS2-related connectivity gains, Bentley expansion, or a Manchester commuter ripple-out reaching south Cheshire), today's yield compresses fast. The Cheshire commuter belt has, over the past two decades, delivered better total returns (income plus growth) than the Crewe corridor despite yields that were always lower.

The other gap the table does not show is rental-pool depth. Crewe and Middlewich let quickly when the local employment base is buoyant, but vacancy can spike in a single quarter if a large employer cuts shifts. Premium postcodes usually have deeper, more diversified tenant pools (Manchester finance, legal and medical professionals, plus corporate relocations) and longer void tolerance, which matters more than headline yield once you model a realistic five-year hold with one to two months of voids built in. The dashboard lets you stress-test occupancy assumptions on either side of the city median of 97%.

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

Cheshire East Beats the England Median, Top Postcodes Beat the UK Average

The county median yield of 5.1% sits above the England median of 5.6% but slightly below the UK national average of 5.7%. The top of the Cheshire East table, however, beats both comfortably: Crewe (CW1) at 8.2% and Crewe South (CW2) at 7.9% both clear the UK national figure by a wide margin. The bottom of the table, the premium commuter postcodes shown in the second table, trails the national median, which is the price an investor pays for the Cheshire brand.

Two regulatory points matter for any holiday let analysis here. First, the 90-day annual short-let cap applies only inside Greater London under the Deregulation Act 2015. Cheshire East has no equivalent night cap, so the 330-night working assumption used throughout the dashboard reflects realistic maintenance and turnover gaps, not regulation. Outside London, however, switching a property from buy-to-let to holiday letting may need planning permission for change of use, which Cheshire East Council assesses case by case. Second, the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime was abolished from April 2025, so holiday lets and buy-to-let are now taxed equivalently. The financial comparison between the two strategies now turns purely on gross income and operating costs, with no special tax wrapper to lean on. Stamp duty on additional dwellings still applies on purchase; verify the current rate with your solicitor before exchange.

Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026. Methodology: see market score methodology and data sources.

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.