The hottest property market outside London in 2015? Margate
03-27-2016
Asking prices in the Kent seaside resort soared by more than 24% in 2015 to reach an average of £204,631, according to Rightmove
Margate
Margate led a property boom across the north Kent towns that fall within London’s commuter orbit. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Patrick Collinson
The Kent resort of Margate, once a byword for seaside decline, was the hottest property market in Britain outside of London this year, according to the UK’s biggest property website, Rightmove.
The town beloved by artist JMW Turner headed the table of locations where asking prices have gone up most over the year. Driven by Londoners desperate to find affordable homes outside the capital, asking prices in Margate jumped by 24.2% in 2015 to an average of £204,631.
Margate led a property boom across east and north Kent towns that fall within London’s commuter orbit. Rightmove’s top five included Gravesend, where asking prices surged 20.5%, Ramsgate 18.6% and Dartford 17.4%.
The average rise in asking prices across England and Wales in 2015 was 7.1%.
The top 10 towns with the highest asking price growth outside London (England and Wales).
The only non-Kent town in the top five was Altrincham in Greater Manchester, where asking prices leapt by 21.9% to an average of £484,258. One of the wealthiest parts of the north-west, homes in the Altrincham area can fetch up to £5m.
Outside of London, the most searched for towns were Bristol and Cambridge. During 2015, property buyers made 14m search requests naming the cities. York was in third place, followed by Milton Keynes and Norwich.
Rightmove also said that home sellers may want to consider putting their property on the market in the second week of August. Monday 10 August was its busiest day of the year with 56m page views, as people tried to find a new property to be settled in before Christmas.
The top 10 quickest places to sell a property outside London (England and Wales).
Properties typically last 62 days on the site. The town where properties moved the fastest was Welwyn Garden City. Homes in the Hertfordshire town lasted only 25 days on the site, followed closely by nearby Hertford, where they went in 26 days.
Rightmove spokesman Sam Mitchell said: “This year saw demand reach record levels for home hunters both buying and renting, and the ripple effect from London to the south-east moved even further out to places like Essex and Hertfordshire, as you can see from how quick properties are selling in these locations.
“Usually January is Rightmove’s busiest month but the new year rush stayed even longer this year, and we recorded our busiest ever month in March.”