The Best UK Cities and London Boroughs to Find Your Forever Home

Finding a forever home is the aim for thousands of UK property buyers, and the search has become even more important with millions of Brits working from home during COVID-19.

In our latest study, Bequests has looked at several locational, financial and lifestyle factors to determine the best cities and London boroughs to find your forever home.

Our study revealed that Brits are likely to stay in their homes for only an average of 12 years, with this number rising to 17 years within London.

The study takes into account the quality of schools and crime levels, along with the average price and size of houses in major UK cities, and London Boroughs, as well as looking at factors specific to properties, such as size and price.

Wales boasts the best cities to find a forever home out of the whole of the UK. The three Welsh cities ranked, Swansea, Cardiff and Newport ranked first, third and fourth respectively. Newport and Swansea are also in the ten lowest average price for properties, meaning a forever home could be more affordable, and achievable, than you may think.

Despite only ranking sixth, Sunderland is the city where individuals are the least likely to move homes. On average, Mackems will move home around every 39 years, compared to people in Nottingham who will move home every two years in order to try and find their forever home.

City	Number of years owners stay in the home	Percentage of schools rated good or outstanding	No. of active GP’s per 100,000 patients	Recorded crime per 1,000 population	Price per square metre	Average price paid for house	Average size of house (m2)	Value change over 10 years	Overall Score
Swansea	64	99	79	77.75	£1,395.00	£183,025	131	£42,234	7.71
Belfast	9	84	78	124.39	£1,731.60	£136,436	79	£32,750	7.17
Cardiff	63	91	70	98.36	£2,161.00	£248,767	115	£78,264	6.64
Newport	49	87	93	120.22	£1,474.00	£180,562	122	£58,635	6.63
Sunderland	39	85	55	104.84	£1,163.00	£143,027	123	£35,271	6.49
Liverpool	17	81	76	117.79	£1,245.00	£173,533	139	£51,008	6.37
Preston	7	90	59	81.87	£1,370.00	£183,950	134	£49,563	6.02
Plymouth	12	77	97	85.19	£1,789.00	£209,873	117	£59,074	5.92
Stoke-on-Trent	3	81	55	104.26	£1,124.00	£152,466	136	£45,378	5.85
Birmingham	11	79	63	96.76	£1,837.00	£203,671	111	£62,757	5.68
Coventry	13	89	58	74.23	£1,833.00	£216,249	118	£69,999	5.67
Bradford	17	72	61	130.87	£1,433.00	£137,421	96	£25,907	5.63
Wolverhampton	5	80	57	91.51	£1,428.00	£198,506	139	£58,411	5.60
Sheffield	5	79	63	94.44	£1,690.00	£199,574	118	£58,777	5.53
Nottingham	2	80	65	120.32	£1,470.00	£207,934	141	£72,790	5.43
Derby	4	74	64	107.54	£1,577.00	£205,378	130	£56,190	5.35
Newcastle upon Tyne	5	84	62	112.28	£1,714.00	£207,104	121	£56,319	5.32
Hull	5	82	41	149.08	£1,127.00	£138,189	123	£36,529	5.32
Blackpool	3	84	54	174.32	£1,107.00	£123,412	111	£28,225	5.16
Manchester	10	87	64	159.38	£1,941.00	£200,069	103	£65,858	5.13
Leicester	4	82	53	114.28	£1,692.00	£235,425	139	£78,822	5.08
Leeds	5	79	60	123.36	£1,920.00	£216,737	113	£67,582	4.98
Northampton	3	80	57	106.7	£2,045.00	£250,792	123	£95,995	4.60
Ipswich	4	81	53	117.21	£2,029.00	£251,880	124	£90,816	4.53
Portsmouth	9	88	41	112.52	£2,400.00	£235,347	98	£74,549	4.45
Norwich	2	84	59	128.96	£2,367.00	£264,838	112	£96,954	4.26
Milton Keynes	6	89	43	98.8	£2,679.00	£310,028	116	£101,368	4.22
Aberdeen	11	33.4	117	116.25	£4,265.98	£188,431	44	£32,370	4.18
Southampton	3	84	52	121.11	£2,647.00	£291,555	110	£90,264	4.16
Southend-On-Sea	7	89	55	106.32	£3,273.00	£316,478	97	£90,309	3.94
Bristol	2	77	59	108.04	£3,039.00	£329,490	108	£116,261	3.92
Edinburgh	4	34.2	125	112	£4,050.85	£286,788	71	£81,947	3.88
Reading	3	79	50	100.9	£4,206.00	£399,546	95	£122,976	2.95