Nine data-driven factors. All from public sources. No sponsorship, no agent fees, no vested interests. Here is every weight, every data source, and every decision we made.
Each place receives a composite score between 0 and 100. The score is a weighted sum of nine normalised sub-scores. Each sub-score is normalised to a 0–100 scale relative to the full distribution of English towns — so a score of 80 on house price growth means the town is in the top 20% nationally for that factor.
Data is sourced exclusively from public datasets: HM Land Registry, Ofsted, the ONS, Ofcom, and the DLUHC EPC Register. No estimates, no modelled guesses. Where data is unavailable for a location, that location is excluded rather than imputed.
Year-on-year percentage change in median transaction price for the local authority area. Momentum matters — areas where prices are accelerating signal underlying demand.
Median house price divided by median gross annual earnings (residence-based). Lower ratios indicate better affordability relative to local wages.
Percentage of state-maintained schools in the local authority rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. Weighted by pupil count.
Recorded offences per 1,000 residents in the local authority area. Excludes fraud, cyber, and low-harm anti-social behaviour.
Percentage of residential properties with an EPC rating of C or above. Higher EPC quality signals lower running costs and better energy security.
Proprietary demand index (0–100) derived from open for offer buyer activity signals: search frequency, saved properties, offer rates, and enquiry volumes per local area.
Percentage of premises with access to superfast broadband (download speed ≥30 Mbps). Relevant for hybrid workers choosing where to live.
Percentage of local authority land area classified as accessible green or blue space (parks, nature reserves, rivers, coastline).
Percentage of households within 400m of a bus stop with regular service (≥2 services/hour daytime) or within 1km of a rail or metro station.
open for offer's ranking uses nine scored factors across property, economy, and liveability. House price growth (25%) and affordability (20%) carry the highest weights, followed by school quality (15%), crime rate (10%), EPC quality (10%), and buyer demand, broadband, green space, and transport (5% each). Each factor is normalised to a 0–100 score; the composite is a weighted sum. All data is sourced from public datasets: Land Registry, Ofsted, ONS, Ofcom, and the DLUHC EPC Register.
House price data: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, 12 months to December 2024. Income data: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, financial year ending 2024. School data: Ofsted inspection outcomes 2023/24. Crime data: ONS Crime Survey 2023/24. EPC data: DLUHC EPC Register 2024. Broadband: Ofcom Connected Nations Report 2024. Buyer demand: open for offer platform signals. All datasets are publicly available.
No. Rankings are determined solely by the composite scorecard. No location pays to appear, no agent or developer can influence position. The methodology and weights are published openly on this page.
The 2026 ranking reflects data to December 2024. Land Registry data typically lags transactions by 3–6 months, so the 2026 index represents the most complete available picture at publication. The ranking will be refreshed for 2027 using data to December 2025.
House price growth is the year-on-year percentage change in median transaction price for the local authority area, sourced from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data. Higher growth scores higher. Outlier suppression is applied: areas with fewer than 50 transactions in a 12-month period are excluded to avoid small-sample distortion.
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