The so called Northern Powerhouse cities of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool have joined the Bangkok, Lisbon and Berlin at the top of a list of global property investment hotspots, according to a new ranking report.

These cities could soon also be joined by Newcastle and Seattle at the top of the table, offering the best return on investment, says the latest quarterly global real estate outlook report from an international property investment group.

Manchester continues to take the top spot. With rapid growth taking place, the report says that house prices are on the up, with an 8.6% increase recorded from October 2016 to October 2017 and rents are forecast to increase 16.5% from 2018 to 2022.

Healthy rental yields of 5.6% gross were recorded at the end of 2017 too, driven by a large working age population and a 51% graduate rate from the city’s 105,000 students.