Bath is the top city price hotspot across Great Britain, with asking prices rising 15% over the last year, more than any other city, new figures show.

Truro in Cornwall is the second city asking price hotspot and Southend-On-Sea is third, recording an increase of 14.8% and 13.4% respectfully.

Average growth of 12.6% in the top ten city hotspots outpaces national asking price growth of 9.9% as demand outstrips supply, according to the data released by Rightmove this morning.

Cities near coastal and countryside have seen the strongest price growth, as buyers balance wanting city amenities and being near to work with a desire for more space

In the South West, where the price hotspots of Bath, Truro, Plymouth & Gloucester are located, the number of properties available has dropped by 39% compared to last year.

Due to the imbalance between supply and demand, there is high competition between buyers for the homes available.

The research also found that Glasgow is the most competitive city to buy a home, measured by number of people enquiring about each available property, followed by Stirling and Sheffield.

Exeter is the city competition hotspot, with competition more than doubling over the last year (110%), the biggest increase of any city, while Lancaster ranks second and Worcester is third.

Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, said: “Since the pandemic started, we’ve been tracking interesting changes in buyers’ relationship with cities. In the first stages of the pandemic, we saw the popularity of some major cities like London temporarily drop as more people looked for more space. However, for other cities like Bath or Plymouth, which perhaps have easier access to the coast and countryside, we saw demand really soar when the market reopened in 2020. Initially, the supply of homes available kept up with some of this surge in demand, steadying asking prices.

“Now, we’re still seeing really high buyer demand for cities like Bath, Plymouth and Truro, but the number of new homes coming onto the market hasn’t been able to keep up with the buyers enquiring, which has led to asking prices accelerating over the last year.”

City price hotspots

City competition hotspots