Better than all the rest: Hart in Hampshire named best place to live in the UK for the fifth time in six years
The area, less than an hour from London had topped the Halifax table as the best place to live for four consecutive years, most recently in 2015, but was knocked off the top spot by nearby Winchester last year, falling to 26th place.
Hart scored highly for residents’ health and life expectancy – it has the UK’s highest life expectancy for women, at 86.7 years – with wellbeing, earnings, employment, low crime rate and relatively good weather adding to its appeal.
But local estate agent Justin Smith believes the tranquil district may have lost its crown last year due to local residents being priced out of housing in the area by big budget London buyers.
The 10 best places to live in the UK
“Last year, London buyers were outbidding Fleet residents. Now, London buyers aren’t selling their properties so we’re selling more to the local market at slightly reduced prices,” says the senior client manager at the Fleet branch of Mackenzie Smith.
“We had London buyers who’d sold a one-bedroom flat in Putney for £650,000 coming here and seeing that they could comfortably afford a four-bedroom detached house with a double garage less than an hour’s commute from London, and so they were pricing out the local market.”
However, Smith says Hart’s rise back to the top of the table could be related to the capital’s slowing property market making it harder for Londoners to sell their homes and so pushing down price competition for locals.
He estimates prices have dropped by about two per cent at his branch but some other branches are seeing asking prices down by as much as 10 per cent.
Nonetheless, the Halifax report points out that the great quality of life in Hart comes at a cost. At £419,000 the average house price in the local authority is 8.8 times the average local pre-tax income – in the UK as a whole the ratio is 7.3.
North-South divide
The Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland retained their second spot on the list from last year thanks to the highest employment rate in the country at 87 per cent, and a 96.6 per cent health rate, low crime, little traffic and high spending on education leading to excellent exam results.
The highest ranking London local authority was Westminster which rose to 13th place from 44th in 2016. At number 18, the City of London was the only other London area to make the top 20.
The research found a striking North-South divide with two-thirds of the top 50 best places to live in southern England thanks to the strong labour market, long life expectancy, good health and weather.
The North scored best for housing affordability, low traffic, little crime and low average primary school sizes.