Where should YOU buy a home? From low crime to transport links, use our calculator to find the best area based on the things that matter most to you

There is no perfect place to live. Anyone house-hunting can attest that finding a town or city that ticks every box is all but impossible.

The schools are excellent but the railway connections are poor. There’s plenty of green space but the broadband is weak. 

And if an area has all the features you desire, you can expect prices to be sky-high and probably out of reach for most families.

But there’s a smart way you can discover the best place for you: find the qualities important to you that other households are less concerned about. 

Identify the features you can live without that other people are desperate for. 

That way you’ll find the sweet spot, where you’re not paying for things you don’t need but are stumping up for the things that really matter to you.

Our new tool will help you do just that. Money Mail has devised a calculator which reveals the perfect spot for you based on eight vital factors. 

Simply rate how important each is to you and it will reveal the perfect place for your family. 

Try it below and read on for the best and worst places in the UK in each category.

How to use our location calculator

Our calculator uses statistics from a range of official sources to work out your perfect neighbourhood. 

Data is drawn from the Office for National Statistics, the 2021 Census, the Land Registry House Index, Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis and Ofcom.

You must rate from 0 (not at all) to 100 (imperative) how important you find the eight factors home movers typically consider when looking for a property.

The calculator will suggest the best ten neighbourhoods of 5,000 to 15,000 people for you based on your scores. So which neighbourhood comes up trumps for each feature?

Housing market

If you view your home as an investment, buying in an area which has seen historic growth and has potential for more could be important.

Old Trafford, in Greater Manchester, scores the highest in this metric as it has seen growth of 162.2 per cent since 2019.

It’s next to two huge sports stadiums – so you’ll need to be okay with noise if you decide to take advantage of climbing property prices and buy here.

Elswick South, in Newcastle upon Tyne, is next with 143.8 per cent growth, while Highfield & Lowfield in Sheffield takes bronze with 143.7 per cent.

If growth isn’t important to you – perhaps because you envisage your property purchase as your forever home – then Somers Town in north London could be for you.

It has seen a fall of almost 48 per cent, which means you could also snap up a bargain now prices have tumbled.

Only one of the bottom ten for house price growth is outside of London – Spennymoor East & Ferryhill West in County Durham, which has seen price falls of more than 35 per cent since 2019.

Priorities: If you view your home as an investment, buying in an area which has seen historic growth and has potential for more could be important

Disposable income and deprivation

If living in an affluent area is the most vital aspect of your search, the best places for you are in central London. These households are some of the wealthiest in the country.

Such areas are particularly likely to have cafes, bars and shops that would only attract those who have money to spare once their bills are paid.

Hans Town, a neighbourhood in Kensington and Chelsea, has the highest levels of income after housing costs and tax are deducted from household income at £63,900 every year. 

The area of Scholar Green, Rode Heath and Brereton – three picturesque villages in Cheshire – also scores highly as households here have a disposable income of £59,200.

If high levels of disposable income isn’t a vital for you maybe try St Matthews and Highfields North in Leicester. Households here typically have the lowest level of spare cash to spend at £14,400.

But affluency may not be your only consideration. Some areas – for example, parts of London – can be host to plenty of wealth but also high levels of poverty. 

While disposable income in Castlefield & Deansgate – an industrial area in Manchester which has seen a wave of development – is a moderate £36,100, it has the lowest levels of deprivation.

Under a scoring system where 0 per cent is the most deprived and 100 per cent is the least, Castlefield and Deansgate scores 83 per cent based on factors such as education, health and employment. 

Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Hyde Park are close second at almost 82 per cent.

Outside London, consider Ingleby Barwick North in North Yorkshire, which scores just over 81 per cent.

If deprivation levels do not figure in your priorities, try searching in Grimsby East Marsh and Port – it scores almost 42 – and Alexandra Park in London where it is just over 42 per cent. Living in these areas means you will be able to get more space for your money.

For example, in Grimsby houses sold for an average of £144,042 in the past year, says Rightmove. But in Castlefield, the figure was £243,950.

Crime rates

Level of crime is a key metric in many property searches. Maybe you want to feel safe letting your children play outside with their friends.

If so, you should house hunt in Cherry Burton, Leconfield and Middleton – a cluster of three villages in East Yorkshire. This is the area with the lowest crime rate. Just 13.6 occur per 1,000 people.

However, you’ll pay a hefty price to live in this safe area. In Cherry Burton the average property sold for £356,733 over the last year, according to Rightmove. 

Other safe places include the area of Leeming, Pickhill and Thornton in North Yorkshire with a 14.5 crime rate and Linslade West in Central Bedfordshire at 14.9.

If the crime rate is low on the list of your priorities, you could consider central London spots. Fitzrovia West and Soho has a crime rate of 3,364.6 per 1,000 people while for the Strand, St James’s and Mayfair it’s 3,013.

However, few families live here and types of crime in St James’s, for example, are mainly theft from the person, which hugely impacts tourists in particular.

Outside of London, Leeds city centre has a high crime rate with almost 1,095 incidents per 1,000 people.

But in central Leeds, the average property has sold for £186,711 over the last year.

Town and country: If you want to be surrounded by green space, consider house hunting in Windsor (pictured) where households have an average of 7,102.5 acres within 1km

Air quality

For health-conscious families looking for clean air, Cumbria is the place to be. Thornhill, Gosforth and Seascale – an area of Cumbria – has the top air quality across England with 3.8 micrograms of PM2.5 – tiny particles of pollution mainly emitted by burning diesel and petrol – per cubic metre. 

This is followed closely by Aspatria and Abbeytown, also in Cumbria, with just over 3.8 micrograms per cubic metre. These spots are relatively low on pollution due to their rural location.

The further you move away from London and the east coast, the cleaner the air tends to be: the south-west, north of England and the border with Wales have the purest air. 

London makes up the bottom ten places with the worst air quality – all are close to the centre.

Green space

If you want to be surrounded by green space and picturesque dog-walking spots, consider house hunting in Windsor Town and Eton in the South East. Households there have an average of 7,102.5 acres of green space within 1km.

Old Windsor & Wraysbury, which neighbours Windsor Town, and Englefield Green in nearby Runnymede, all have an impressive 7,052.9 acres.

By contrast Featherstone West, Coven and Shareshill on the outskirts of Birmingham do not have a single full acre of green space.

Broadband speed

WI-FI is increasingly important during house hunts, particularly for those who work from home.

Our tool measures how many households in an area get different broadband speeds: at least 1000Mbps, between 300 and 1000Mbps, between 100 and 300 Mbps, between 30 and 1000Mbps, and below 30Mbps.

Many places have a perfect score, which means all households have broadband speed of at least 1000Mbps. This is very fast and can support large households with everybody running multiple devices at the same time.

These places include Bolehall in Staffordshire, Richmond and Stradbroke in Sheffield, and Kettering East in Northamptonshire.

If broadband isn’t a priority, try Todmorden West and Cornholme in West Yorkshire. Some 93 per cent of homes in this rural spot have a broadband speed of between 100 and 300Mbps.

This is enough to support standard usage and high-definition streaming on multiple devices.

Railway links

As workers return to the office, access to a railway station is high up on many families’ wish list.

There are many locations with a perfect score for railway links, which means all households in these areas are within a 15-minute walk of a train station.

These include Tynemouth Priory in Tyne and Wear and Milnrow West, near Manchester.

The retired or families with cars may not rank railway access as a necessity. If that’s you, try Devizes East in Wiltshire or Cowes West, Gurnard and Northwood on the Isle of Wight. There is not one home in these areas within a 60-minute walk of a railway station.

But don’t think you can snap up a bargain because you are some distance from a station. Some value living in rural, unconnected spots and this is reflected in house prices.

In Cowes the average home sold for £385,294 while in Milnrow it was £212,468.