The UK’s house price hotspots of 2023

Which towns saw the biggest jumps in asking prices last year?

2023 was a tricky year when it comes to house prices. Higher mortgage rates held back demand from potential buyers, and those lower activity levels pushed down house prices.

Rightmove for example found that at the end of the year average asking prices stood 1.1% lower than at the same point in 2022.

However, averages only tell you so much ‒ while there are some areas that have seen more pronounced drops, there are equally towns that have seen house prices grow significantly.

And nowhere has seen prices increase quite so sharply as Sandback in Dorset.

Here are the house price hotspots, according to Rightmove’s data, for 2023.

What’s really interesting about this table though is the spread in terms of both geography and the asking prices themselves.

We have town where prices are a smidge over £100,000, and areas costing almost £2 million, while they spread from the south coast to the north of England.

In other words, these house price hotspots can emerge almost anywhere across the country, and at any price point. 

Where homes sell fastest

The time taken to find a buyer can vary sharply by region.

While the average time to find a buyer in Great Britain stands at 66 days, things are much swifter north of the border.

According to Rightmove, the average time to find a buyer in Scotland is just 37 days, while Rosyth in Dunfermline, Fife is the fastest market of all.

Typical vendors take just 17 days to secure a sale.

Outside of Scotland, the fastest market was found to be Redfield in Bristol, where it took an average of 25 days to find a buyer.

The most searched-for locations

So which areas are most likely to be in demand from buyers?

Rightmove has data on that too, breaking down the locations most commonly searched for by both buyers and renters.

Let’s take a look:

What does the future hold?

For all of the difficulties last year held for the housing market, there’s no denying that things are a little more positive right now.

Mortgage rates have been dropping significantly, to the point that barely a day goes by without a big lender announcing rate cuts, making deals look a little more appealing. 

And that is feeding into growing demand from potential buyers.

Those same people who put their plans on hold when rates rose have been encouraged back into making a speculative offer.

In some cases that’s down to the discounts they can secure.

A study from Zoopla at the end of last year suggested that the average discount off the asking price that vendors were accepting in order to secure a deal had reached 5.5%, or £18,000 in cash terms.

But there’s also just a greater appetite to buy.

The facts around the housing market haven’t really changed ‒ we don’t build anywhere near enough homes to meet demand, and that doesn’t look like improving anytime soon.

As a result, as soon as mortgage rates become vaguely compelling, house prices are going to be driven up by the imbalance between supply and demand.

If mortgage rates continue to drop ‒ and the expectation is that they will, as Bank Base Rate is reduced on at least a couple of occasions this year ‒ then that is only going to further support increases in asking prices and sold prices too.