Best housing areas for family living fall short on amenities

Good schools, low crime rates and a broad selection of suitable housing are what families in the UK dream of but that often means living in the country where there is a perceived lack of amenities, new research suggests. An analysis from property firm Savills shows that buying a house in the best locations for children to grow up means purchasing a property in the country.

Looking at the factors for every local authority the area that came top was Rushcliffe, a predominately rural area located north east of Nottingham. The top 20 list of family spots features only one city, St Albans, and is dominated by rural locations that either fail to attract or retain families. By contrast, London boroughs make up 80% of the 20 worst locations for families to live, driven particularly by the lack of three bed plus properties. All local authorities in the bottom 20 are urban locations. However, analysis of where families with dependent children are most concentrated reveals that economic and employment considerations inevitably take precedence when families choose where to set up home.

Of the 25% of locations with the highest concentration of families, only six of the top 20 locations identified featured in the previous top 20 list including all areas. ‘This demonstrates that, although many of the rural areas have the attributes families are looking for, they haven’t yet attracted them to live in these areas,’ said Sophie Chick, Associate Residential Research at Savills. ‘Some 85% of the top 20 locations are situated in the South East or East of England outside of London, suggesting other factors such as the availability and proximity of jobs are taken into consideration,’ she explained.

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‘At the other end, although 60% of the bottom 20 locations are in London, this is a smaller percentage than previously, meaning the list is more geographically diverse,’ she added. The three local authority areas most densely occupied by families overall are the three worst performing on this list: Barking and Dagenham, Slough and Newham.

The top family areas do not attract a significant average price premium. The research shows that values here are just 3.4% more expensive than national average. ‘Of the 25% of locations with the highest concentration of families, there is a significant premium of 38% for living in a location in the top 20% of areas for families. This is often driven by families moving out of London when children reach school age or move to secondary school,’ said Chick.

‘Many other families will be priced out of these markets, they can either look to other areas with good education, crime levels and supply of housing that currently don’t have as many families living there and often don’t offer the same access to employment markets or accept a lower quality of family living,’ she added.