"As families and individuals continue to struggle with the weight of the cost-of-living and increasing mortgage rates, it is promising to see that some of the country’s less populated areas continue to thrive with the sales of new homes at a great rate."
- Spokesperson for A-Plan Insurance
With mortgage rates at a 15-year high and interest rates increasing, purchasing a new home has become more challenging for those living in the UK. However, despite the disheartening market, A-Plan Insurance found some areas in England have maintained sale rates, making them some of the country’s most sought-after destinations.
Analysing figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on the number of newly built property sales across small areas in England with 400 to 1.2k households, compared to the total volume of properties in 2022, A-Plan Insurance revealed ten areas with the highest rate of new property sales.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets was the fastest growing area in England for new homes, with property sales representing almost 25% of the total housing sales in small areas last year. Of the 706 homes sold in 2022, 664 were newly built dwellings.
This was followed by Ryedale with approximately 106 newly built homes sold in its small communities in 2022, making up 13.37% of the total residential properties sold in these districts. Next was North West Leicestershire which was the fastest-growing area for new homes in the East Midlands, with 1503 homes sold. Of which, 157 were new dwelling, making every tenth home sold a newly built property.
In fourth position was Mid Suffolk with a total of 142 newly built homes sold in its less populated areas, making up just over 10% of the residential properties sold in these areas during the same period. Next, as one of the most densely populated areas in Lancashire, Preston has a population of 147,900 across 142km squared. In 2022, 1,804 homes were sold in the region’s smaller communities, of which 173 were newly constructed dwellings making Preston a top-performing area for new builds.
Despite being one of the least populated areas on the list, alongside Ryedale, Eden is one of the fastest-growing places in England for new homes. In 2022, 801 homes were sold, of which 70 were newly built properties.
In seventh position, is one of England’s newest towns, Telford. With a growing population of 185,600, Telford and Wrekin is becoming an increasingly popular destination for homeowners. Over 2k homes were sold in 2022 with 182 newly built dwellings. This was closely followed by Tendring, located by the sea in Essex. Of the approximately 2,555 homes sold in its less populated areas, almost 9% (220) were newly built properties.
The last two places were Broadland which is considered the most peaceful place to live in the UK, and South Derbyshire which was one of the highest performing areas in the East Midlands for newly built home sales. Broadland saw 163 newly built dwellings whilst South Derbyshire enjoyed 1,648 property sales, including 137 new build sales.
Commenting on these findings, a spokesperson for A-Plan Insurance said:
“Approximately 18,841 newly built properties were sold throughout all of England’s small areas in 2022. Developers provide homes of all shapes and sizes for prospective buyers, from detached, semi-detached and terraced houses to flats and maisonettes.
“As families and individuals continue to struggle with the weight of the cost-of-living and increasing mortgage rates, it is promising to see that some of the country’s less populated areas continue to thrive with the sales of new homes at a great rate.”
