The towns with biggest price rises over the past year

A cocktail of stamp duty savings, the race for space and the promise of home working over the past year has turbocharged asking prices into double-digit growth.

Which of these factors played the biggest part in the boom is up for debate, but the result has been price rises of a fifth in some areas in the space of 12 months.

While asking prices do not necessarily reflect the final sale figure, data from property portal Rightmove showed the areas where sellers have made the biggest changes in the price tag since the stamp duty holiday was introduced in July 2020.

The former industrial town of Rawtenstall in Lancashire may once have suffered from a population exodus, but property there was so sought-after last year that asking prices rose more quickly than anywhere else in Britain. The average asking price rose from £ 208,895 in July 2020 to £ 252,519 in July this year, an increase of 21pc, according to Rightmove.

Peter Farrow of the estate agency Farrow & Farrow in Rawtenstall said the town’s proximity to Manchester, which is 18 miles away, had cemented its popularity with commuters in the past year.

“There are great travel links via the M66 corridor and property is comparatively affordable, while it sits within lots of beautiful green space. At the same time, many locals are taking advantage of the rise in value of their homes, and the consequent increase in their equity, to make the next step on the ladder,” he said.

The sudden rise of home working and desire for more space, particularly the green kind, pushed the boundaries of commuter belts further out last year. The trend continued into 2021 as buyers prioritised suburban and rural living over proximity to the office.

Cornwall overtook London as the most searched-for location by buyers earlier this year, according to Rightmove. It is perhaps no surprise then that the south coast town of St Austell recorded the second-biggest jump in asking prices in the country. In July last year sellers asked for an average of £236,696, but within 12 months this had risen by 20pc to £285,186.

Victoria Beresford of Cornwall Property Finders, a buying agent, said this year had been the company’s busiest to date, leading it to stop taking on new clients until next year. “Many of our clients are seeking a slower pace of life on the Cornish coast and, as long as this demand remains, buyers will be willing to pay significantly higher prices,” she said.

With its abundance of space, the most common properties bought in the area were detached houses, which had an average price tag of around £375,000.

Best and final offers and sealed bids – indicators of a competitive market – were still common across all budgets, said Ms Beresford. Properties with coastal views on Sea Road in Carlyon Bay were proving especially popular.

“Asking prices are being driven by recent sold prices listed on the Land Registry, which agents are then using to list properties at the higher end of the scale,” she added.

Irlam in Greater Manchester has redefined itself as an up-and- coming commuter hotspot in the same way as Rawtenstall. Asking prices here jumped by 19pc in the space of a year to an average of £227,349 in July.

Steve Jones of local agency Irlam Estates said: “Some of the rents on central flats in Manchester are outrageous and we are seeing a lot of these renters coming out to the likes of Irlam or neighbouring Cadishead to buy.”

Commuters who live in Irlam can

‘As long as this demand remains, buyers will pay significantly higher prices’

catch a direct train to Manchester Oxford Road and be in the city in as little as 17 minutes. In return for forgoing the city’s central postcodes, buyers have been rewarded with houses in place of flats and gardens instead of balconies.

Semi-detached properties were the most popular in the area over the past year, with buyers spending an average of around £181,000.

Further south, asking prices soared by 19pc in the market town of Sandbach in Cheshire and Aberdare in south Wales. In Sandbach the price tags of property coming to market rose from around £251,500 to almost £300,000 between July last year and July 2021. In Aberdare the average asking price increased to £163,600 from £137,900 last year.