London landlords are flocking to Blackpool as rental returns in the seaside resort tip into double digits, nearly twice what investors can get in the capital.
The proportion of homes in the Lancashire town bought by Londoners hit 9pc this year, up from 4pc five years ago, according to data from estate agency Hamptons.
Most of these London buyers were purchasing an investment property, with Blackpool's average gross yield on a new buy-to-let reaching 10.1pc this year - compared with 5.7pc in London.
Buy-to-let investment in the South East has been waning over the past decade. Double-digit house price gains are incurring bigger tax bills in the region which has led to it becoming increasingly unaffordable.
In 2014, 46pc of the country's buy-to-let purchases were concentrated in London and the South East. Now the figure has dropped to 32pc just as the proportion of landlord purchases in the North East, North West and Yorkshire & Humber have climbed by 13 percentage points.
Blackpool is in the North West, where stamp duty costs landlords £6,816 on average. In London, landlords pay over £46,633 on average for the same tax - and that's before the new surcharge is added on, according to data from buy-to-let bank Paragon.
Stephen Bagdoans, of Blackpool-based managing agent Kenricks Commercial, said over the past year he has noticed an influx in tenants snapping up properties to rent much faster than they used to - just as fewer new landlords get into the market.
He added: "It's supply and demand. That's why yields are getting higher and higher. The Government has been going after landlords. If you're getting hit by a stick, you move out of the way.
"A lot of investment is coming into the town too and the area is on the up. A lot of government offices are coming, and their employees will need places to live. They won't want to live in a bedsit, they'll want to live in higher-end properties.
"The council keeps us on our toes and makes sure properties are up to standard and - at the very least - decent."
Around half of the properties managed by Mr Bagdoans's firm are privately let, while the other half are let to social tenants.
Bruce Haagensen, chief executive of advisory service GB Landlords, said he had noticed an influx of London landlords becoming members of his service to understand the north of England's rental market.
GB Landlords is based in Newcastle, and its members predominantly own buy-to-let properties in the north of England.
Mr Haagensen said: "Blackpool is the big Bed & Breakfast benefits capital of the North West. It's a traditional seaside holiday resort where lots of hotels and boarding houses have been converted into homes for benefit claimants.