How do you spot the next big thing? Whether you are a first-time buyer or an investor, wherever you are on the property ladder, everyone wants to back a bricks-and-mortar winner. But which towns, villages and city neighbourhoods will be the best places to live in the future?
The Sunday Times has identified 25 locations in the UK that are improving the most. They are all on a strong upward curve. It isn’t just large-scale regeneration schemes that can turn a place’s fortunes around. The list includes places with improved transport links and new shops and restaurants, as well as the impact that arts, culture and entrepreneurial energy can have.
Yes, you may have to be patient to reap the full rewards as well as put up with building work and a lack of some amenities, but it could be worth it in the long run.
• Explore the complete guide to the best places to live in the UK
Sally Bentley, her husband, Nick, and two teenage daughters are banking on it. They made the decision to move from a four-bedroom semi in the safe suburbia of Mossley Hill to an apartment in the converted Tobacco Warehouse. It sits on a neglected stretch of dockland north of Liverpool’s Pier Head that’s on the verge of an almighty revamp.
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“The Liverpool Biennial Hub was in this building last year. Peaky Blinders was filmed here, Taylor Swift shot part of her latest video on the bascule bridge,” Bentley says. “There are so many changes planned in the area and a lovely community feel. For us, suburbia can’t compete with this. It really does feel like you are at the centre of things and part of something exciting.”
The 25 best places to invest in 2024
1. Liverpool Docks, Merseyside
Best place for turbocharged riverside regeneration
Exciting times for the long-neglected stretch of waterfront between Liverpool’s expanding business district and the new Everton Stadium. The wide-ranging plans for the area include offices, homes, restaurants and a cruise terminal, as well as a park that will reconnect this end of the city to the Mersey that made its name. At the heart of the regeneration is the Ten Streets light industrial area with ambitions to become a new creative hub — think Baltic Rectangle — and a few independents have already moved in. There’s not a lot else here — right now — but if you want a grandstand view of the transformation, grab one of the industrial-style flats in Tobacco Warehouse (from £265,000).
2. Cromer, Norfolk
Best place for coastal living without the house-price catch
Once known for its faded grandeur, amusement arcades and crabs, Cromer is riding a wave of gentrification that has seen fine delis and surf shacks move in amid the chippies. WFHers have decamped from London, lured by more affordable property prices, the sandy blue flag beach and places like the Gunton Arms, whose walls are adorned by works by Tracey Emin and Lucian Freud. A public art gallery opened on the seafront in 2022, and the pier, home to the only full-season end-of-pier show in the world, has had a facelift. Old streets and flats are being regenerated by developers and work will soon start on sea defences. Buy in from £300,000 for three bedrooms.
3. Paisley, Renfrewshire
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Best place for culture vultures
Once the home of radical weavers, Paisley is applying the same progressive approach its craftspeople pioneered in the 18th century to its once-in-a-generation £100 million glow-up. A hyper-contemporary public library shines out of the grey townhouses on either side, while ground has been broken on the £45 million overhaul of Paisley Museum. Part of the plan is encouraging residents back to the high street, as well as luring urbanites with transport links (Glasgow is ten minutes from Paisley’s four railway stations) and affordable homes (one-bedders from £50,000). There’s still a long way to go but nowhere else in Scotland is going about regeneration with such vision.
• How Paisley is weaving a bold future
4. Forest Gate, London E7
Best place for location, education and recreation
Railway-arch restaurants and cafés, a zero-waste grocery shop, frequent Elizabeth line trains and three-bedroom terraces for less than £600,000 — Forest Gate ticks plenty of boxes for emerging east London. There’s generous green space on Wanstead Flats, St Anthony’s RC won The Sunday Times Parent Power’s primary school of the decade prize in 2021, and Forest Gate has cultural cachet to burn: Idris Elba was born here, Jimi Hendrix wrote Purple Haze here and Arnold Schwarzenegger pumped iron at a local gym. When the drab shopping drag, Woodgrange Road, acquires more appealing indies to accompany Giovanna’s Deli & Wine, we’ll be back.
5. Coventry
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Best place for riding the modern wave in a historic city
One store closes and another door opens … the demise of the UK’s first city-centre Ikea was supposed to be a disaster for Coventry, but the news that the defunct store is being repurposed as a “cultural gateway” has brought a sense of optimism. Add to that progress on a £450 million, 1,500-home regeneration scheme near the railway station (flats from £125,000), the arrival of smart Hotel Indigo and the restoration of the Medieval Quarter, and it points to a positive future.
• Where should you live in the UK? Take this quiz
6. New Brighton, Merseyside
Best place for upbeat Mersey beach life
Investment, community clean-ups and the arrival of cool independent business — bars and restaurants on Victoria Road; Sup, a bar/café/nice things shop opposite the railway station — are elevating this Victorian resort on the tip of the Wirral peninsula. The council has proposed a masterplan to smarten up the seafront, while reliable Merseyrail trains to Liverpool (25 minutes) keep city life within easy reach. Terraced homes start at £200,000.
7. Canton, Cardiff
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Best place for a creative capital investment
Unfairly dismissed by some as the bit with the Cardiff City football ground, this buzzy ’hood is home to the exciting Chapter arts centre; Corp Market, a trailblazing hub for independent businesses in a converted pub; and Hard Lines for a decent brunch. The terraced houses don’t have the size or kerb appeal of neighbouring Pontcanna, but with prices starting at a little over £300,000, they’re a lot more affordable.
8. Hull
Best place for docklands development
It’s all happening in Hull — and not just because Timothée Chalamet finds the local accent sexy. While “nice” areas such as commuter-friendly Cottingham (there’s even one direct train to London King’s Cross a day) and Hessle change little year to year, big-time regeneration of this historic port city’s West Docklands is coming, with a cruise terminal at its heart. The transformation of Albion Square is under way with more than 200 new homes, office and retail space, a hub for creative businesses and a new urban park funded by a £96 million investment. You’ll have to budget £180,000 if you want your own plot in the city centre. If that isn’t enough, St Mary’s College, a mixed Roman Catholic secondary and sixth form, is the best comprehensive school in the north of England according to The Sunday Times Parent Power guide — and its catchment is city-wide.
9. Musselburgh, East Lothian
Best place for capital growth
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It was only a matter of time before Musselburgh, a coastal town six miles east of Edinburgh — and six minutes by train — began to siphon talent away from the city. The largest settlement in East Lothian has always been popular with families (the average house price is £270,000, according to Rightmove), but has missed out on hipster credentials … until now. The maverick minds behind the Edinburgh-based Company Bakery will soon be cranking up bread ovens in a new café/shop, while Fisherrow Tap, a craft beer bar with origins in Leith, is the newest harbourside watering hole. Coming soon: a “festival village” for Fringe performers with free alfresco yoga classes and a rehearsal space.
• North Berwick, East Lothian, named best place to live in the UK
10. Wirksworth, Derbyshire
Best place for small-town living with a twist of mystery
This town, five miles south of Matlock, is the definition of a hidden gem — and you get the feeling the residents would like to keep it that way. It’s convenient for nowhere in particular, but its cottages (£200,000-£300,000) and winding alleys offer character and old-world charm that linger from its mining and milling days. The Tuesday market has been running for more than 700 years. There are festivals for books, art and antiques and a Harry Potter-themed Wizarding Day, which perfectly illustrates the town’s Hebden Bridge-style embrace of all things quirky.
11. Totterdown, Bristol
Best place for sociable social climbing
For all its tortuous transport issues and dog-eat-dog housing market, Brizzle is still one of the UK’s most vibrant cities — but value is hard to find. Look southeast to Totterdown. If you can cope with its hills — Vale Street is the country’s steepest residential road — you’ll find characteristically colourful terraced houses (from £400,000), a choice of parks and views of Clifton and Brunel’s famous bridge. It’s handy for Temple Meads station and there’s a welcome community feel.
• 59 of the hottest properties in the best areas
12. North Shields, Tyne and Wear
Best place for musos (and more) keen to live and breathe the lifestyle
There’s no stopping the development of this town’s burgeoning cultural quarter, eight miles east of Newcastle. Once a Victorian pleasure resort, NS has undergone a musical makeover, winning investment from unlikely places: the DJ and producer Man Power, aka Geoff Kirkwood, recently opened a creative space on the quayside, while The Exchange 1856 theatre opened last year after a £1 million refurb with a performance by Sting. That’s not to forget the local authority’s masterplan with its transformation of pedestrian areas and cycle routes, and Harbour House, a co-working spot with big ambitions for the future.
13. Caerleon, Newport
Best place for commuters who dig archaeology
Newport-adjacent, but definitely not part of Newport, this comfy riverside commuter town (handy for Cardiff, Bristol, mainline trains and the M4) no longer has quite the status it enjoyed in Roman times, when it was HQ of the second legion of Augustus. But new homes and businesses are putting extra zip in its chariot. South Wales’s smart set are flocking to try the chateaubriand (£75 for two) at the Priory Hotel, and the delights of Coffiology coffee shop. Next step is the imminent conversion of the grade II listed Parc y Coleg — Moordale High in the Netflix series Sex Education — into flats. Prices haven’t been set yet, but new-build detached homes nearby cost from £408,000.
14. Eastbourne, East Sussex
Best place for young families with a taste for art and sea air
The Turner prize exhibition at the Towner gallery, which is on until April 14, and all that hoo-ha when the winner was crowned there in December are proof that Eastbourne is ready to kick off its retirement slippers and mix it with cool-kid resorts such as Folkestone and Hove in the seaside regeneration race — think festivals and craft beer. A growing number of families are seeking refuge along the coast from the crippling house prices in Brighton and the wider southeast in a town where a detached four-bedder costs about £450,000. Even better, the South Downs National Park is on the doorstep.
15. Halesworth, Suffolk
Best place for being cultured and connected in the countryside
Underpromise and overdeliver is a good mantra for life — this market town nine miles from Southwold has taken it to heart. Halesworth is rapidly gaining cultural and culinary currency, and the underrated town has England’s largest millennium green, with 50 acres of meadows, woodlands, rivers and ponds, and — a rare boast for deepest Suffolk — a railway station. The average asking price is about £342,000, according to Rightmove.
16. Ulverston, Cumbria
Best place for the Morecambe Bay wise
On the Furness peninsula on the edge of the vast sweep of Morecambe Bay, Ulverston has long been popular with downsizers, but now this sturdy market town is also the picturesque choice for families lured by lucrative jobs in Barrow-in-Furness — and the schools are good to outstanding. Homes (from about £300,000) along the Coast Road from the village of Bardsea, with its dog-friendly beach, have the best views of the water.
17. Tottenham, London N17
Best place for excitement on and off the pitch
From Chas and Dave to Beyoncé, whose gigs last spring epitomise the vibrancy that the shiny new Tottenham Hotspur stadium is bringing to oft-derided N17. The Premier League club’s manager, Ange Postecoglou, has brought the fun back for fans, the local economy is booming and the High Road now offers cutting-edge art and fashion at House of Bandits, as well as kebabs. If you want to be on the Victoria line, join the creative types colonising South Tottenham, or “SoTo” (flats for about £350,000), or for a similar price check out the waterside flats in revitalised Tottenham Hale.
18. Derry/Londonderry
Best place for art, heart and a house you can afford
With a little help from its stint as the UK’s first City of Culture, in 2013, and a game-changing sitcom, Derry Girls, it is no longer just a punchbag of the Troubles. This no-nonsense, outward-looking city is now a fun and friendly cultural hotspot, and a worthy rival to Belfast. The houses are cheaper (£177,000 on average, according to Rightmove) and Lumen Christi College is one of the best schools in Northern Ireland.
• Portstewart, Co Londonderry, named best place to live in Northern Ireland
19. Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
Best place for comfort and community in the Cotswolds
Arty, crafty and refreshingly down to earth — for the Cotswolds at least — Nailsworth has all the advantages of its big brother Stroud — overall Sunday Times Best Place to Live in 2021 — without the hippy trouser/custard cords divide. Everyone eats together at the Canteen, everyone shops together at the monthly market, and everyone walks their dog on Minchinhampton Common. Trains, excellent schools and a brilliant Saturday farmers’ market can be found in Stroud, a 10-minute drive away.
20. Pembroke, Pembrokeshire
Best place for a safe haven in wild west Wales
A revamp of the Norman castle, some tasty new restaurants and a £10 million levelling-up regeneration scheme, though not universally welcomed, are freshening up the town that gave Pembrokeshire its name, making it a lively, practical base to explore Wales’s wild west. It’s within easy reach of the M4, has brilliant beaches — and houses are much cheaper than Narberth, Tenby or St David’s, starting from about £250,000.
• Why Narberth, Pembrokeshire, is one of the best places to live
21. Dunfermline, Fife
Best place for commuters who want to go out on a school night
It was crowned Scotland’s newest city in 2022, but Dunfermline hasn’t rested on its laurels. A surge of service sector businesses have arrived, helping to pump cash and jobs into this former royal burgh. The refurbished Alhambra Theatre continues to draw in big names, while an art deco former fire station has been transformed into studios, a café/bar and live music venue. Plus, you can snag a semi-detached house for about £180,000 and Edinburgh is just a 40-minute drive away.
22. Long Buckby, Northamptonshire
Best place for 21st-century village people
On the outer edge of the London commuter’s radar, this village offers Cotswold-style countryside and excellent transport connections. Trains to London take just over an hour and the M1 is on the doorstep. Plus there’s a primary school rated good by Ofsted, clubs and community groups, independent shops including a butcher, chemist and the Born & Bread bakery, while the library promises “books and buzz”. Family-sized new-build homes go for about £450,000.
23. Southbourne, Dorset
Best place for surfing the seaside wave
This corner of Bournemouth has one of the best stretches of beach in an area famous for its golden sands. For all the crowds flocking to the double-decker beach bar Sobo Beach for draft Estrella and gourmet burgers, it rarely gets too busy. Climb up the cliff path and away from the sea and you’ll find pleasant streets as well as family-sized Edwardian and 1930s detached houses, from £500,000.
24. Brentford, London TW8
Best place for champagne views on a (craft) beer budget
This Thames-side ugly duckling neighbourhood is emerging as a waterfront contender thanks to the Brentford Project, a 12-acre redevelopment that aims to spruce up the dowdy high street while providing smart flats with a residents’ pool and views over nearby Syon Park and Kew Gardens. The full completion date is 2027, but one-bedders are on sale from £467,500, while an Everyman cinema is due to open this autumn.
25. Bawtry, Doncaster
Best place for taking a punt on an outsider
Doncaster is coming out of the doldrums and it’s all about the connections. This city has the fastest direct trains from Yorkshire to London: 1 hour, 39 minutes to King’s Cross. Plus, it’s next to the A1 and the M18, linking to the M1. As well as the high fashion stakes at Doncaster Racecourse — more fascinators than flat caps — dear old Donny is home to one of the top ten independent schools in the north, co-ed 3-18 Hill House School, according to Parent Power. Leading the field are smart suburbs such as Bessacarr, where a flutter on one of the finest detached mansions will set you back £1 million-plus, and the Georgian town of Bawtry, where terraced cottages are from £175,000. Independent shops and wine bars pepper Bawtry’s marketplace. Designer-smart rural outfitters Fairfax & Favor — Zara Phillips wears their tall Regina boots, £415 — is joining them this summer, opening its second Yorkshire store in the former town hall.
Compiled by: Tim Palmer, Gabriella Bennett, Matthew Davis, Jayne Dowle and Alexandra Goss
Explore our list of the 72 best places to live in our dedicated guide
