The latest market analysis from Rightmove has revealed that Bath is the top city price hotspot in Great Britain, with asking prices rising 15% over the last year, more than any other city.
Truro, in Cornwall, was the second city price hotspot, with asking prices jumping 14.8% over the last year, while Southend-On-Sea, Great Britain’s newest city after being granted city status earlier this year, was third with a rise of 13.4% in annual asking prices.
The top five city asking price hotspots are in some of the past year’s most popular coastal and countryside areas, highlighting the balance many buyers are looking to find between being near to work and city amenities and having more space.
In the South West, where the price hotspots of Bath, Truro, Plymouth & Gloucester are located, the number of properties available has dropped by 39% compared to last year.
Due to the imbalance between supply and demand, there is high competition between buyers for the homes available.
Glasgow is the most competitive city to buy a home, measured by the number of people enquiring about each available property, followed by Stirling and Sheffield.
Exeter is the city competition hotspot, with competition more than doubling over the last year (+110%), the biggest increase of any city.
Lancaster is the second competition hotspot (+100%) and Worcester is third (+99%).
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Data comments: “Since the pandemic started, we’ve been tracking interesting changes in buyers’ relationship with cities. In the first stages of the pandemic, we saw the popularity of some major cities like London temporarily drop as more people looked for more space.
"However, for other cities like Bath or Plymouth, which perhaps have easier access to the coast and countryside, we saw demand really soar when the market reopened in 2020. Initially, the supply of homes available kept up with some of this surge in demand, steadying asking prices.
“Now, we’re still seeing really high buyer demand for cities like Bath, Plymouth and Truro, but the number of new homes coming onto the market hasn’t been able to keep up with the buyers enquiring, which has led to asking prices accelerating over the last year.”
John O’Malley, CEO at Pacitti Jones in Glasgow, said: “The Glasgow property market is still very much in favour of the seller – and whilst it is great for those selling, it can be a turbulent experience for buyers. As we are seeing properties being snapped up in a week, understandably sellers are hesitant to bring their own property to the market until they have agreed on the purchase of their next home.
"This is making it difficult to bring liquidity to the market and means that buyers are then missing out due to the numbers competing for the same property. As we are seeing 50 + viewers and offers being made within days for every property coming on the market, those without anything to sell are still able to move more quickly and therefore remain in favour. This lack of supply then results in more demand for available properties and inevitably means property prices in Glasgow remain high.”
