While house prices are falling at their sharpest rate in 14 years, Gloucester's property rental market is "going through the roof".

Two property experts have told Punchline that Gloucester is the go-to place in the county for rentals, even outperforming Cheltenham.

George Tatham-Losh, owner and director of Move Property Sales and Lettings, said: "I always struggle when I see national stats on mortgage and rent demands and sales. If you break down Cheltenham, Gloucester and Worcester, Cheltenham remains relatively level but the Gloucester market has gone through the roof.

"Rents in Gloucester like-for-like are higher, compared to Cheltenham and Worcester. I would say probably 80% of the tenants we are letting to aren't local. The majority of tenants work for the NHS or businesses based in Gloucester Business Park, for example, and they are competing against each other which is driving prices through the roof. This is making it hard for people who live here to rent.

"We recently launched a property in Gloucester Docks called Britannia Warehouse. There were 37 apartments and we had them all let in the space of four weeks. Rents are very high. How long is it sustainable for? It was like this 12 months ago. They just keep going up and up. At some stage they are going to have to slow down but it doesn't seem to be any time soon.

George added: "Gloucester is going great guns with the money that's going in there with the sales values and the rents. We've got a young professional market moving in and it's cheaper to live in Gloucester than Bristol.."

Angharad Trueman, group lettings director of Andrews Property Group, agreed that the return of investment in Gloucester was currently much better than Cheltenham.

She said: "In our county Gloucestershire has the biggest yields for landlords. If I ever have landlords come to me and say 'I've got this money I want to invest, where should I buy?' I always direct them to Gloucester.

"There's great yields in Gloucester, rents are going up, house prices aren't going up as quickly so they can really get a good return on their rents. I think that's a real positive for landlords in our area and I'm hoping that will bring more investment from landlords into the Gloucester area."

Punchline says: "The regeneration of Gloucester is having a very positive effect on the local property market. Both of these estate agents seem to agree that Gloucester is the place to invest over Cheltenham."