Best Places to Live in the UK for Prime Buyers | 2026 Edition

Garrington Property Finders are delighted to present the Best Places to Live 2026 for prime locations in England, Wales and Scotland.

2026 promises to be a vintage year for the prime property market, with more attractive pricing combining with the strong fundamentals sought by the discerning buyers of Britain’s premier postcodes. Together, these factors are creating rare opportunities in a sector where change tends to be gradual.

Prime locations traditionally earn their reputations over time, like the lustre on an antique piece of furniture or jewellery, with their appeal accruing through a consistent blend of beautiful homes, top-tier schools, and exclusivity.

But this year, the data-led analysis that underpins our Best Places to Live 2026 report has identified a number of drivers, including greater affordability, that have propelled dozens of prime locations into the top spots of our highly competitive national ranking.

In total, prime hotspots scored a clean sweep of the top 10 highest ranked locations in England and Wales, and four out of Scotland’s top 10.

Quicklinks for reviewing the Best Places to Live Prime edition in 2026

Garrington has analysed data to identify the best places to live in England, Wales and Scotland and has created helpful tools which allow house hunters to compare places they’re considering when shortlisting locations.

Use Garrington’s analysis tools to compare locations

See the top 10 Best Prime Places to Live in England and Wales in 2026

See the top 10 Best Prime Places to Live in Scotland in 2026

Best Places to Live in 2026 – the year when quality meets value in the prime property market

In some cases, the high scores achieved by prime locations in our 2026 Best Places to Live report are underpinned by the recalibration of prices seen in 2025.

This trend was most apparent in prime central London. While Land Registry data shows that average property values across the capital fell by 2.4% in 2025, some of London’s most exclusive postcodes saw double-digit price corrections.

In England as a whole, the average home rose in value by a modest 1.4% to reach £291,515. The average price paid for a home in Wales rose by 1.5% to £210,657.

Price inflation was brisker in Scotland, with the average Scottish home rising in value by 3.3%.

The multivalent picture that emerges from prime markets across Britain at the start of 2026 brings plenty of surprises.

Our expert analysis has revealed many well-established prime areas where prices either fell in 2025, or rose more slowly than the regional average, making quality better value.

But we’ve also evaluated the wider web of factors that sustain value and enhance living in prime locations across the country, from strong connectivity and a stunning natural environment, to educational excellence and a rich cultural heritage, that together elevate certain places above others.

Whether they’re in the traditional prime heartlands of southern England and Scotland’s central belt, or further afield, we’ve analysed and ranked the strengths of them all and selected the best of the best for our 2026 Best Places to Live Prime report.

How to choose the perfect place for you

If you’re considering a move in 2026, our Best Places to Live guide can help you identify prime locations that blend a high quality of life, proven appeal, and growth potential, as well as strong value for money.

Our data analysts have identified over 1600 cities, towns, and villages across England, Scotland and Wales that all score highly in at least one of five selection criteria: natural beauty, wellbeing, heritage, schools, employment and connectivity, plus value for money.

Once again for 2026, we’ve made our national ranking available for free, and you can use the interactive tools below to explore the entire league tables, whether you’d like to see how your current hometown scores or just want some inspiration for places that offer more of what matters most to you.

Use Garrington’s analysis tool to compare locations

See the top 10 Best Prime Places to Live in England and Wales in 2026

See the top 10 Best Prime Places to Live in Scotland in 2026

Best places to live in England and Wales: Prime rankings

Marple, Greater Manchester

Topping this year’s ranking for England and Wales is Marple, a frequent star performer in our annual league table. The highly regarded town in Greater Manchester came fourth in the 2025 ranking and rose to the top spot for 2026.

Despite being just nine miles and around 25 minutes from central Manchester, Marple has an understated charm and calm, much like the frequently underestimated Miss Marple, Agatha Christie’s much-loved sleuth, who was named after the town.

Boasting a strong community spirit and two brass bands, a neighbourhood cinema, and plenty of independent shops, Marple is nestled at the foot of the Peak District. The town is threaded by canal towpaths and surrounded by wooded valleys, and its landscape lifted it to 18th place in the natural beauty category of our ranking.

At £517,119, a typical family home in Marple costs well above the English national average. Even though family home prices there rose by 7.6% in the past year, much faster than those in southern England, they remain competitive for a prime area of Greater Manchester, and Marple scooped 27th place in the value for money category.

Rawdon, West Yorkshire

Second-placed Rawdon in West Yorkshire blends great landscapes, panoramic views, prime homes, and easy access to the city. Just six miles from the centre of Leeds, the village came 95th in the natural beauty category and represents good value after the price of an average family home dipped by 0.3% over the year to reach £451,094.

How they compare: The 10 best prime locations in England and Wales in 2026

Greater Manchester performs strongly in our 2026 ranking, accounting for three of the 10 highest ranked prime locations in England and Wales, including the table-topping Marple. This is despite the sustained rise in average prices seen in the region, which was fastest in fourth-placed Bramhall, where the value of a typical family home rose by 10.8% in a year.

Just a 20-minute train journey from the heart of Manchester, Bramhall is popular with city professionals and has a vibrant high street, excellent schools, and a village atmosphere. Its high concentration of well-paying jobs and good transport links powered it to 21st place in the schools, jobs and connectivity category of the ranking.

Two places below Bramhall is another Greater Manchester hotspot, Bowdon. Placing sixth overall, this prestigious village also came 37th in the schools, jobs and connectivity category of the ranking.

Famously home to several celebrities and Premier League footballers, and located in the prime ‘Golden Triangle’ between Manchester and Liverpool, Bowdon bucked the regional trend to become relatively more affordable, with the price of a typical family home rising by a modest 1.3% to reach £639,321.

St Albans reigns in the South

The highest ranked prime location in southern England is St Albans in Hertfordshire. The city was founded in Roman times and has a winning streak in our annual ranking that stretches back almost as far. It came fifth in the 2025 league table and has jumped to third in the 2026 ranking.

Just over 20 minutes by train from central London, St Albans is popular with wealthy commuters and has schools and prime property prices to match. At £895,411, the price of a typical family home in the city is the highest in our top 20 for 2026.

Penarth, top prime ranking for Wales

The top performing prime location in Wales is Penarth, a classically genteel seaside town in the Vale of Glamorgan, just three miles from the centre of Cardiff. Famed for its Art Deco pavilion and pebble beach, the town looks out across the waters of the Severn Estuary and clinched 34th place in the heritage and culture category of the ranking.

With a typical family home in the town costing £436,219 after average prices slipped by 4.4% over the past year, elegant Penarth has become significantly better value and ranks 113th overall for 2026.

Use Garrington’s analysis tool to compare locations

See the top 10 Best Prime Places to Live in Scotland in 2026

Best places to live in Scotland: Prime results

In Scotland, lower average prices and the potential for strong capital appreciation lifted prime values across the board. Official data shows that average property values north of the border rose by 3.3% over the past year, but prices surged considerably faster in many of the prime Scottish hotspots singled out in our 2026 ranking.

Three affluent and attractive Glasgow suburbs – Milngavie, Bearsden, and Bishopbriggs dominate the list of Scotland’s prime hotspots, despite clocking average annual price rises of 14.6%.

Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire

Top of the prime pops for 2026 is Milngavie, which came third overall. The starting point of the West Highland Way, the town is nestled in the Allander River valley but is just eight miles from the centre of Glasgow, making it an established favourite among professionals who commute into the city.

Best of the rest

Nearby Bearsden, which claimed third place in our prime ranking and came fifth overall in Scotland, boasts high average salaries and quick connections to central Glasgow that propelled it to fourth place in the employment and connectivity category. The town also has two millennia of history and boasts a small loch, a nature reserve, and no fewer than five golf courses.

A few spaces lower down is Dunblane, childhood home of Andy Murray and a consistently high scorer in our annual ranking of Scotland’s best places to live. Centrally located near Stirling and boasting a range of attractive, historic housing styles as well as stunning countryside and riverside walks, it came 20th overall, down slightly on its second-place finish in 2025.

Nearby Bridge of Allan was the overall winner of our Scotland ranking in 2025, but this year it slipped to 24th place overall. This former spa town, which is just three miles from central Stirling and dotted with handsome Victorian villas, sits at the foot of the Ochil Hills and is home to the University of Stirling.

Use Garrington’s analysis tool to compare locations

The 10 best prime locations in Scotland in 2026

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Edinburgh came top in the heritage and culture category of our 2026 ranking, but it was pipped into 17th place overall by nearby Queensferry.

Officially part of the City of Edinburgh, Queensferry has prices to match. But it also offers pretty cobbled streets and unmatched views of the Forth Bridges and across the River Forth, together with a rich heritage, attractive waterside cafes and restaurants, as well as excellent rail connections into Edinburgh and north into Fife.

Where next for prime property?

The stellar performance of prime locations in our 2026 Best Places to Live index provides much food for thought for discerning buyers. Three key takeaways emerge:

• Many prime markets in England and Wales offer rare opportunities for 2026. In some of the most desirable areas, prices cooled or fell in 2025, creating openings for strategic buyers looking to negotiate on deals.

• Scotland offers stability and long-term value. Prime locations north of the border are experiencing healthy growth, making them compelling investment choices.

• Reputation is just one of the many factors behind the premium values associated with prime areas. Today’s most successful prime locations combine good living and investment security with a unique mixture of connectivity, cultural heritage, and charm.

Find your best place to live

You can use the tools below to compare hundreds of cities, towns, and villages across England, Wales and Scotland.

Simply type the first three letters of the place you’re looking for into the relevant interactive box. Alternatively, you can view all the locations in a region by selecting ‘browse by region’. Click the ‘Pin me’ button to view scores for two places side by side.

Compare Locations: England and Wales

Compare Locations: Scotland

Need expert help?

Every buyer’s definition of ‘prime’ is different, and aligning lifestyle goals with market opportunities is where expert guidance can make all the difference.

If you feel you’d benefit from the expertise of a professional property buying agent, please contact us for a no-obligation discussion about your property plans and the services we offer.

Tell Garrington about your search for a new home. 

From prestigious city-centre hotspots to luxurious rural retreats

In addition to our national research, Garrington’s team of regional experts has unrivalled, granular knowledge gained on the ground and decades of experience sourcing and securing prime homes across Britain, for both UK and international clients.

Our reach extends well beyond the headline locations featured above, with local insight that often uncovers places that don’t yet appear on mainstream lists but are very much on the rise.

Drawing on their deep local expertise, our advisors have identified a selection of hidden gems and emerging hotspots – places that may not rank at the top in every data category, but which are nonetheless brimming with charm, investment potential, and lifestyle appeal.

To explore these hand-picked recommendations, visit our dedicated pages for England and Wales, and Scotland, where you’ll find links to a series of regional articles.

From chic city streets to idyllic country lanes, we’ve selected prime areas to suit every taste.

Behind the Best Places to Live research

Each year, our regional property experts team up with our research analysts to shape the methodology behind our two separate Best Places to Live reports; one for England and Wales and one for Scotland.

By drawing on a consistent set of trusted data sources, we ensure year-on-year comparability, thus allowing useful insights to emerge and genuine trends to be identified.

You’ll find full details of our research methodology and the data sources we rely on in the sections below.

Our Best Places to Live research methodology

Garrington’s Prime Best Places to Live report 2026 is an impartial, objective ranking based on publicly available data. The ranking is not based on subjective or personal opinions.

Our data team compiled data in up to 18 categories, including proximity to open space, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, numbers of listed and period homes, air quality, crime figures, and the percentage of homes with their closest primary school ranked Outstanding by Ofsted.

The analysis included a total of 1447 locations in England and Wales, and 161 in Scotland, with a population of 5000 or more. Our report is NOT a league table of the ‘best and worst places to live’. On the contrary, the research only ranks the best places to live, so being included, whether at number 1 or at number 1447, is to be applauded.

Data sources for our Best Places to Live Prime research

A wide range of data sources have been used to create the report’s proprietary research methodology. These include:

The Office for National Statistics, Scottish Government, Welsh Government, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage, DEFRA, BEIS, NapTAN (Ministry for Transport), PCT, and Historic England, Openstreetmap Contributors.

Media Enquiries and Intellectual Property

We welcome enquiries from journalists and recognised media outlets regarding our Prime Best Places to Live Research 2026. Our team is pleased to assist with requests for further information, and members of our senior management team are available for press interviews, subject to availability. Please contact us here with such requests. We are happy to support accredited members of the press, including those from recognised publications and the Press Association.

All research findings remain the intellectual property of Garrington Property Finders Ltd. While we are pleased to share publicly available insights, we regret that our proprietary datasets are not available to third parties. The use of this content without appropriate credit or acknowledgement of Garrington’s rights is strictly prohibited. When referencing our research, please ensure it is clearly attributed to Garrington Property Finders.