Letting Agents Cardiff

Last updated: 10 July 2026

Why are you looking for a new letting agent in Cardiff?

Maybe it's a current agent who's stopped answering the phone. Maybe you're self-managing a flat you never planned to own and the admin has stopped feeling worth it. Or maybe you're buying a shared house near the universities and want someone who actually understands Cardiff's licensing and planning rules before you commit. Whatever it is, this is what we do.

We manage 500+ properties across South Wales for landlords of every kind: the accidental landlord with one flat, the portfolio landlord with a dozen terraces, and the HMO investor working the streets around Cathays Park. Our job is simple: take the hassle off your hands so your rental feels like an investment, not a second job.

What you get with us

Full management means we handle everything — finding contract holders, referencing, occupation contracts, rent collection, arrears chasing, maintenance, inspections, compliance. You get a monthly statement and we call you when there's something you need to know. That's your only involvement.

Tenant find is for landlords who prefer to manage day-to-day but want help getting quality contract holders in. We advertise across the major portals, handle viewings, reference properly, and set up the occupation contract. Then we hand over to you.

Rent collection sits in between. We collect the rent, chase arrears, and handle the awkward conversations so you don't have to. You still manage the property, but you're not chasing money.

See also our lettings management in Cardiff and HMO property management in Cardiff pages for the area-specific detail.

What does it cost?

Full management is a flat 10% + VAT of the rent collected. Rent collection on its own is 5% + VAT. One rate, no tiers, no lock-in contract, and new instructions get the first 3 months of management free. If you own 4 or more properties, talk to us about a bespoke rate — that's a conversation, not a published discount tier. Full detail on our fees page, or get an instant quote for your property.

What's the Cardiff rental market doing right now?

Average private rent across Cardiff was £1,157 a month in May 2026, up 3.3% on the year from £1,119 (ONS, Price Index of Private Rents, May 2026, accessed 10/07/2026). That's the highest average rent of any city in Wales' south — the Wales-wide average is £836 — although Cardiff's growth rate is currently running behind the national 4.7%. By bedroom count: a 1-bed averages £894, a 2-bed £1,068, a 3-bed £1,187 and a 4-bed-plus £1,677.

Source: ONS, Price Index of Private Rents, Cardiff local authority, May 2026 (accessed 10/07/2026). These figures cover the whole local authority — the ONS doesn't publish rent data at neighbourhood or postcode level, so treat any Cathays- or Roath-specific rent figure quoted elsewhere with caution. ONS also notes local figures use smaller samples than national estimates, so month-to-month movements are more variable than the headline suggests.

What rental yield can I expect on a Cardiff buy-to-let?

Working from the same official data, a landlord buying at the Cardiff average price and letting at the Cardiff average rent is looking at a gross yield of roughly 5.1%. That's a blended, all-property-type figure for the whole local authority, not a per-postcode or per-bedroom number. We'd rather show the sum than quote a bare percentage:

• Average monthly rent, all stock (ONS, May 2026): £1,157
• Annualised: £1,157 × 12 = £13,884
• Average sold price, all stock (ONS/HM Land Registry UK House Price Index, April 2026, provisional): £271,000
• Gross yield: £13,884 ÷ £271,000 = 5.1%

One footnote on the working: the rent figure is May 2026 and the price figure April 2026, because that's how the two ONS series publish — a one-month mismatch, not an error. For price context, Cardiff's average sold price rose 1.8% over the year to April 2026 (from £266,000), slower than the 3.5% rise across Wales as a whole (ONS/HM Land Registry, April 2026, accessed 10/07/2026). Rents rising faster than prices is gentle good news for yield if you're buying now.

What's the gap between benefits and market rent in Cardiff?

If you let to a contract-holder on Universal Credit or Housing Benefit, the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate is very unlikely to cover the market rents above — worth knowing before you set a price or accept an applicant. On current figures the LHA rate covers roughly 73–78% of the ONS average rent, leaving a gap of £245–£265 a month the contract-holder has to find elsewhere, or you absorb by pricing at LHA level.

Source: LHA rates — DWP/Welsh Government, Cardiff Broad Rental Market Area, April 2026–March 2027 (accessed 10/07/2026), converted from weekly to monthly (×52÷12). Market rent — ONS, as above. The shortfall column is our own calculation, not a published statistic. A 4-bed LHA rate exists (£1,296.45/month) but the ONS rent category is "4+ bedrooms", so we haven't published a like-for-like gap for it.

HMO licensing in Cardiff: wards, licences and planning permission

Cardiff's HMO rules run on two separate tracks — licensing and planning — and both are administered locally: licensing by Shared Regulatory Services (SRS, the shared service of Bridgend, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan councils), planning by Cardiff Council.

Mandatory licensing. In Wales an HMO needs a mandatory licence when all three tests are met: the property (or any part of it) is three storeys or more, it's occupied by five or more people, and those people form two or more separate households (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Descriptions) (Wales) Order 2006, accessed 10/07/2026). Wales has its own prescribed test, so be careful with guidance written for English landlords.

Additional licensing. Unlike some Welsh cities, Cardiff's additional licensing is ward-based rather than citywide. The Cathays ward scheme is live: it took effect on 1 February 2023 for five years, so it runs to 31 January 2028, and it means every HMO in the ward needs a licence regardless of size (Shared Regulatory Services, accessed 10/07/2026). Ward designations are re-declared on five-year cycles and can change — if you're buying a shared house elsewhere in the city, particularly around the Plasnewydd ward, check the current position directly with SRS before you commit. We track this as part of our HMO management service.

Licence fees. As at July 2026, SRS lists Cardiff HMO licence fees for compliant properties at £280 for flats, £390 for shared houses of up to four bedrooms, and £410–£460 for larger properties (SRS, accessed 10/07/2026 — fee schedules change, so check SRS for the current figures).

Planning permission is the bigger catch. Since 2016, converting a dwelling into a small HMO (3–6 unrelated sharers, use class C4) has required planning permission in Wales; larger HMOs of 7+ sharers are a separate "sui generis" use. Cardiff's HMO Supplementary Planning Guidance then applies concentration thresholds: a new HMO is unlikely to get permission where HMOs already make up more than 20% of dwellings within 50 metres in the Cathays and Plasnewydd wards, or more than 10% anywhere else in the city (Cardiff Council HMO SPG, supplementing Local Development Plan Policy H5, accessed 10/07/2026). In practice that means many streets near the universities are already at or over the threshold — check before you buy, not after. We handle licensing applications as part of our Cardiff HMO management service, and if you're not sure whether your property needs a licence, we can check.

Where the tenant demand comes from: Cardiff area profiles

Cardiff's rental demand is anchored by real institutions, not just the postcode. Cardiff University's main campus has been at Cathays Park since 1909, with over 30,000 students across the city; Cardiff Metropolitan University adds around 11,000 more from its Llandaff and Cyncoed campuses, and the University of South Wales runs its Cardiff campus just behind Queen Street station. On the employer side: the Welsh Government's headquarters at Cathays Park, Admiral (the FTSE 100 insurer headquartered in the city centre), BBC Cymru Wales at Central Square, and the University Hospital of Wales at Heath Park.

Cathays is the classic shared-house territory: densely packed Victorian terraces around Crwys Road, Cathays Terrace, Whitchurch Road and Woodville Road, with the university campus and the Welsh Government's offices at Cathays Park on the doorstep and Cathays station running to Queen Street and Central. Demand is students plus university staff and civil servants. Remember the ward carries both additional licensing and the 20% HMO planning threshold — factor both into any purchase.

Roath offers tree-lined avenues and Victorian terraces between Adamsdown and Roath Park, with Albany Road, Wellfield Road and City Road as the shopping streets and Cardiff University's Queen's Buildings (the engineering school) close by. One thing many buyers miss: most of what people call Roath sits inside the Plasnewydd electoral ward, and Cardiff's HMO planning thresholds and licensing designations follow ward lines, not neighbourhood names.

Heath is hospital-land: the University Hospital of Wales ("the Heath"), Cardiff University's teaching hospital with around 1,080 beds, sits at Heath Park. The housing stock is largely 1920s–1950s semis, and the area has two stations (Heath Low Level on the Coryton Line, Heath High Level on the Rhymney Line). A natural draw for NHS staff on shifts and for families.

Canton runs along Cowbridge Road East west of the river, with Chapter Arts Centre, Victoria Park and its own stations at Ninian Park and Waun-Gron Park. Demand here skews professional and family, with the city centre — and the BBC's Central Square base — a short hop away.

Grangetown is 19th-century workers' terraces directly adjacent to Cardiff Bay, with Grange Gardens at its heart, Grangetown station, and the Ferry Road interchange linking to the A4232 and M4. The Tramshed venue and years of renewal investment have shifted the area's profile; it remains one of the more affordable entry points close to the centre.

Whitchurch, in the north of the city, keeps a village feel with its own shopping street, a station on the Coryton Line, and strong school pull — Whitchurch High School has around 2,400 pupils. Velindre Cancer Centre sits at the end of Velindre Road. This is settled family-let territory rather than shared-house territory.

Area anchors compiled from public sources, accessed 10/07/2026. Institution figures (student numbers, hospital beds, pupil counts) are approximate and drawn from the institutions' own or third-party published figures — treat them as scale indicators, not audited counts.

Rent Smart Wales is run from Cardiff

Here's a local footnote most landlords don't know: the national licensing scheme every Welsh landlord must register with is administered from Cardiff. Cardiff Council is the designated licensing authority for the whole of Wales under the Regulation of Private Rented Housing (Designation of Licensing Authority) (Wales) Order 2015 (legislation.gov.uk and rentsmart.gov.wales, accessed 10/07/2026).

What that means for you is the same as everywhere in Wales: Rent Smart Wales registration is mandatory (£60 online, valid for five years), and the Renting Homes (Wales) Act replaced assured shorthold tenancies with occupation contracts for contract-holders (tenants). There are specific Welsh requirements around fitness for human habitation, notice periods, and deposit protection. We're fully licensed with Rent Smart Wales, and when you use us for full management our licence covers the letting and management activities — you just maintain your own landlord registration.

Switching agents is straightforward

If you're with another agent, we manage the whole transition. We contact your current agent, arrange handover of keys and documents, and notify your contract holders. Most switches complete within two weeks with no gap in rent collection.

We don't lock you into long contracts. Rolling agreements with reasonable notice periods — if we're not delivering, you can leave. That's how it should be.

Which areas do you cover in Cardiff?

We cover the city centre and the neighbourhoods profiled above — Cathays, Roath, Heath, Canton, Grangetown and Whitchurch — plus the wider CF postcode area. Along the M4 corridor we also cover Newport, Bridgend and Caerphilly, alongside the wider South Wales landlord services we run across the region.

If you're not sure whether we cover your street, just ask.