Bristol is most popular place outside London for home hunters

Bristol has been crowned the most searched for place outside of London for both buyers and renters in 2019, new Rightmove data has revealed.

The average asking price of property in Bristol is £316,410, which is around £283,000 cheaper than in the capital, while homes for sale in Bristol spent an average of 50 days on the market before finding a buyer this year – selling quicker than anywhere else in the South West.

Manchester and Liverpool completed the top three most searched for locations for renters this year, while York and Glasgow were the second and third most popular places for prospective buyers. In the capital, the most searched for place for buyers was Wimbledon and for renters was Canary Wharf.

Rightmove’s property expert Miles Shipside said: “There’s high demand for suitable housing in Bristol and the surrounding area, as it’s a vibrant regional centre with a strong local economy.  Historically, there has not been enough new house building to cope with the shortage of homes, resulting in prices rising at a faster pace than many other cities in the UK. In the last year the price of property coming to market in Bristol has risen by 2.3%, well above the national average of 0.8%. Though this is good news for those already on the property ladder, it makes it harder for first-time buyers to get onto it. These are dynamics that are likely to continue, making Bristol a good place to invest.”

When it comes to sales growth, Pontefract in Yorkshire and The Humber has seen the biggest year-on-year increase in average asking prices, rising 12.3% to £175,412 in 2019. This compares to a national average of just 0.8%.

In the capital, Hoxton in the London borough of Hackney takes this crown, with average asking prices rising by 11.4% to £1,019,510 this year.

Meanwhile, it’s Ashton-Under-Lyne in the North West which has seen the biggest rental hikes outside of London. Tenants, on average, are forking out £546 a month – a 5.4% upturn from 2018.

And in London, Battersea in Wandsworth has seen the biggest increase in average asking rents, with prices rising by 14.1% over the past year to £2,544 per month.

When it comes to selling a property quickly, the top ten are all in Scotland, with Falkirk leading the way, taking just 28 days from the time a property is added to Rightmove until it is marked as sold subject to contract.