New research showing households in the West Midlands are collectively paying an extra £241m a year for essential goods and services — the so-called 'poverty premium' — should catch the attention of anyone with capital deployed in the region's property market. The premium, which captures the additional cost lower-income households face for insurance, credit, energy and other basics compared with wealthier households, is not simply a social statistic. It is a proxy for household financial fragility, and financial fragility is precisely what determines rent arrears, void periods, insurance claims and, ultimately, yield performance for landlords operating in that market.