Heritage Villages

Commuter Villages

Coastal Villages

London Villages

Emerging Villages

Heritage villages

Living in an historic area can often lead to significant house price premiums, with buyers valuing the built heritage of their neighbourhood. The listing process aims to protect the oldest and most unique buildings – and villages with high concentrations of these buildings hold a unique appeal.

Across England, the parishes which have the highest proportion of listed buildings relative to their population also have the highest average house prices and the highest premiums above the county in which they lie.

Villages in the top 10% by proportion of listed buildings have an average of 14.5 listed buildings per 100 people. The average second-hand sale price across these areas is £584,000, 75% higher than the respective county averages.

Widecombe-in-the-Moor in Dartmoor National Park has 26 listed buildings for every 100 people – the highest across England. Here, average prices are 76% above that for Devon. The village from our top list with the highest premium is Brancepeth – famous for its medieval castle. Prices here are more than three times higher than for County Durham as a whole and there are 10 listed buildings per 100 people.

Heptonstall in West Yorkshire offers the most value whilst still retaining strong heritage. And even here, buyers can expect to pay a premium of 45% above the county as a whole.

Commuter villages

For those in search of village life with an eye on strong links to the capital, there are 109 railway stations located in villages that have a direct journey into a London mainline station and a travel time of less than two hours. Across these, the average second-hand sale price over the past two years was £544,000 and travel time into London is just under an hour.

Of course, these vary depending on direction of travel. There are eight village stations with an average second-hand sale price above £1 million. All are located to the South West or West of the capital, London’s traditional wealth corridor.

There is value to the East where house prices average £375,000 – although West Horndon in Essex is closer to £500,000. Some of the fastest journey times are to the North or North West of London, such as Welwyn in Hertfordshire (20 min) and Denham in Buckinghamshire (22 min).

Coastal villages

Since the start of the pandemic, some of the most popular and in-demand properties have been those on the UK’s coastline. Accessibility to the shoreline combined with the appeal of village life means the value of prime property in coastal villages has risen by an average of 26.2% since March 2020, higher than the 16.4% seen across the wider prime regional markets.

Of the top 14 of our coastal villages, 13 are located within a national park or an AONB, highlighting that proximity to open green space also remains a key driver for buyers.

Unsurprisingly, the most expensive coastal villages can be found in the South of England – Beaulieu, Itchenor and Rock all command prices of more than £1 million and values in each are at least three times the average for the county in which they sit.

While much of the coastline in the East of England is characterised by lower-value industrial markets, Brancaster and Thorpeness in Norfolk and Suffolk respectively are good examples of more traditional coastal living and both command significant premiums.

More value can be found in the North of England but premiums to local areas still remain high. Bamburgh is the highest value with prices exceeding £550,000 – almost two and a half times more than Northumberland as a whole.

London villages

For many, London’s villages combine the best of city and village life and have been some of the capital’s top performing markets since the start of the pandemic. A sense of community together with connectivity, family housing stock and plenty of green space have been the catalyst for increased demand.

This, coupled with a lack of supply of the right type of homes, has led to strong price growth. The average value of a house in eight of London’s most notable villages (Barnes, Chiswick, Hampstead, Highgate, Marylebone, Richmond, Victoria Park and Wimbledon) has risen by 13.5% since the start of the pandemic (March 2020). This figure ranges from 16.2% in Hampstead and 15.8% in Wimbledon to 2.3% in Marylebone. Here, lower levels of international demand have constrained more significant price growth.

Although demand continues to be strong and competitive bidding for the best homes is still prevalent, house price growth has started to ease. Values grew by 5.2% in the year to September, down from 6.3% three months previous. In a market we know is highly leveraged by debt (as we examine here), pressures on the cost of living and rising interest rates have begun to mediate some of this demand.

Emerging Villages

Although villages have seen a rise in house prices recently, these markets have tended to underperform towns and cities over the longer term and so opportunities remain. Villages to watch include those that have seen a significant rise in sales but values remain within 25% of their county average. Hopton near Stafford has seen 178% more sales during the past two years than during the two years prior to the pandemic, but average values are only 24% above Staffordshire at £284,000. Similarly, values in Monkton average at only 17.3% above that for Kent but sales have seen a 175% uplift.

Villages that offer the best value compared to their surrounds include Portisham in Dorset. Although close to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and within the Dorset AONB, prices here remain only 2.8% higher than the county. But at £392,000 values are higher than some other up-and-coming villages. For example, average values in Binbrook in Lincolnshire are £232,000 and sales have increased by 90%.