City still has wow factor, says survey
Two thousand years ago it was thermal springs that drew the Romans to Bath. Today it’s the ancient city’s standard of living that has propelled it to the top of a comprehensive ranking of the best places to live for the second year in a row.
The annual league table, compiled by Britain’s largest independent buying agents Garrington Property Finders, ranks nearly 1,400 cities, towns and villages across England and Wales according to four criteria - natural beauty, architectural beauty, quality of life and environmental credentials.
Bath scored highly in three of the four categories that determine the overall ranking. Its Georgian grandeur - which once inspired Jane Austen and now attracts tourists and TV crews alike - saw it crowned in the architectural category, while its rolling hills and manicured open spaces powered it to 43rd place in the natural beauty category.
The Somerset city came 58th in the green credentials category, which is new for 2022 and scores areas on how many energy-efficient homes and cycle lanes they have, as well as the availability of public charging points for Electric Vehicles (EVS). With pure EV sales surging by 196.3 per cent between February 2021 and the same month this year, having somewhere to charge them is now a key consideration for increasing numbers of homebuyers.
Even though working from home is now optional, hybrid working is here to stay, and lightning-quick internet is a musthave for many homebuyers. That’s why the Garrington ranking is the first of its kind to focus exclusively on areas where at least 95 per cent of homes have access to superfast broadband.
Coming in second was Lyme Regis in Dorset followed by Salisbury in Wiltshire - showing that the South West is where it is best after all.
Researchers also scored each location for its proximity to open water, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In the architectural beauty category, marks were awarded for the number of listed and period homes, while the quality of life category ranked each town, village and city for its air quality, crime figures, accessibility by public transport and the proportion of properties that have access to outside space.
By looking beyond price, the ranking threw up some notable surprises. While top-ranked Bath has been a desirable destination for millennia - and has sky-high prices to match - other highscoring places offer greater value.
For example, at just £202,196, an average-sized family home in fifth-placed Kidwelly costs less than a third of what it would in Bath. The Welsh seaside town boasts a draw-dropping Norman castle and is close to the sandy beaches of Carmarthen Bay. It is one of five towns and cities to make it into the top 20 where a typical family home costs under £350,000.
Wiltshire and Lancashire are the best-represented counties in the league table, each claiming three of the top 20 spots. The addition of the green category to this year’s ranking has shaken up the 2021 pecking order. Just six of last year’s top 20 made it into the class of 2022, with new entrants Wallingford (Oxfordshire) and Shaftesbury (Dorset) climbing 318 and 31 places respectively, thanks to their strong green credentials.
Jonathan Hopper, CEO of the buying agents Garrington Property Finders, said: “Offices may have reopened but the homeworking genie is out of the bottle. With millions of people keen to continue working remotely at least some of the time, many are reassessing what they want from their homes - and this shift is transforming Britain’s property market for good.
“If you’re unshackled from a daily commute, you instantly have much freer rein over where you live - and can buy in an area where you can get more home, and a better quality of life, for your money.”