The estate agent comparison site analysed house price data across 60 UK towns that fall within six distinctive categories - seaside, new, market, historic, university and manufacturing.
The research shows that seaside towns have posted the strongest performance on all fronts. With a current average of £340,339, they are home to the highest current property values. They’ve also seen the largest annual increase at 13.2%, as well as the largest increase during the pandemic, up by 21.2%.
It’s a far more mixed picture when it comes to the house price performance of other town categories.
On an annual basis, new towns, market towns and historic towns have all performed well with an uplift of 11.4%, 11.2% and 10.9% respectively, while university (8.8%) and manufacturing towns (8.6%) have trailed the rest.
However, when looking at pandemic house price performance, manufacturing towns have seen house prices climb by a notable 20.6%, with only seaside towns posting a better pandemic house price performance.
Again, market (19.4%) and historic (19.3%) towns have also performed well during the pandemic, while house price growth across university (16.2%) and new towns (15.9%) has been less impressive.
Colby Short, Founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, commented: “While the worst of the pandemic is hopefully behind us, its influence on the property market still remains, with seaside and market towns, in particular, remaining incredibly popular amongst homebuyers who have come to value the slower pace of life and benefits associated with more rural and coastal locations.
"Of course, this popularity has resulted in a sustained level of house price appreciation across these areas of the property market and so those looking to buy in such an area will now pay between £50,000 to £60,000 more on average when compared to pre-pandemic market values.”
