Brace yourself: The latest 'best places to live' ranking of 1,447 towns, cities and villages is out... and there are some very odd winners and losers

Sandwiched between Manchester and the Peak District National Park is a picturesque town dubbed the ‘Jewel of the Cheshire Alps’.

Just a 25-minute train journey from Manchester city centre, Marple has ‘an understated charm and calm’, according to the buying agency, Garrington Property Finders.

This unassuming town boasts a strong community spirit, two brass bands, a neighbourhood cinema, independent shops, canal towpaths, historic locks, and natural beauty in spades. It is also thought to have inspired Agatha Christie’s famous character, Miss Marple (even if the single best piece of evidence for that claim turned out to be faked).

While the town may not be a household name, Marple has just been crowned the best place to live in England and Wales by Garrington Property Finders.

The agency’s annual league table ranks the best cities, towns and villages with more than 5,000 residents — there are apparently 1,447 of them — across a range of criteria, including natural environment, wellbeing, heritage and culture, schools and jobs, and value for money.

And Marple has taken the top spot, performing particularly strongly in the natural environment, value for money, and heritage and culture categories.

A surprise? Yes. But this is a list full of surprises. Last year's winner, Redbourn, is no longer even on the list. The 2023 winner, Twyford, dropped to 35th place in 2024, but has climbed back up to 14th this year.

If you thought this top 10 prime ranking would be awash with coveted addresses in London, the Cotswolds, the Home Counties and the like, you’d be mistaken. While there are some familiar names — St Albans, which always does well in these sorts of surveys, comes third — it is largely made up of lesser-known locations. And northern charm seems to be the overarching theme, with half of the top 10 locations found in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Cheshire.

‘2025’s big falls in prime central London values made headlines, but our analysis has revealed many other highly desirable areas across Britain where homes became more affordable over the past year,’ explains Jonathan Hopper, CEO of Garrington Property Finders.

None of this is to complain about Marple taking the top spot, though, and if you like the sound of living there then this charming cottage in the town offers ‘a rare blend of character, space, and tranquillity — all within easy reach of Marple Bridge and transport links to Manchester,’ according to Julian Wadden. It’s on the market for £925,000.

Where else should prime buyers turn their attention? Well, Rawdon in West Yorkshire comes in second place. Like Marple, it sits between a major city and picturesque countryside — in this case, Leeds and Nidderdale National Landscape — offering the best of both worlds.

The village scored highly for natural environment, heritage and culture, and value for money. According to Garrington Property Finders, it ‘blends great landscapes, panoramic views, prime houses, and easy access to the city’. This large house on the market in Rawdon includes a separate cottage. It has a £2,250,000 price tag with Hardisty Prestige.

The fact that we've just described Rawdon as a 'village' highlights one of the issues with this list. Is it fair to compare Manchester — popular 600,000 — with Chapel-en-le-Frith, a Derbyshire village with a population 8,000? For what it's worth, Manchester is 112th, some eight places behind Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Once city does make the top 10. Hot on Rawdon’s heels is St Albans in Hertfordshire, a perennial star performer in both this annual ranking and all the others which do the rounds. Strong scores across the natural environment, schools and jobs, heritage and culture, and value for money categories helped propel this popular commuter spot into third place. This five-bedroom house in St Albans has 'family home' written all over it.

St Albans is eyewateringly expensive, though, with an average family house price of almost £1 million. This house for sale with Strutt & Parker is a perfect example. Yes, it's a nice house on a quiet road, but it's hard not to marvel at the economics which dictates that this suburban home costs for £2,650,000, the same as an actual castle just outside Edinburgh.

Rounding out the top five are Bramhall, on the outskirts of Manchester, and Long Ashton in Somerset — suggesting that village life remains hugely desirable.

What's really surprising about the list, though, is the fact that many very lovely places seem to be languishing in the lower reaches. Midhurst, a pretty small town in the South Downs, sits at 1,116th, while nearby Petersfield — with its historic town centre, excellent road and rail connections, good schools and the South Downs on the doorstep — is in 1,325th.

Even some of the most celebrated places in the country rank lowly. Brighton just about gets inside the top 150 at number 149, as does Richmond-upon-Thames (142nd). Both often feature highly in these sorts of lists, as does Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare's town is out of luck though: it's 302nd, just sneaking ahead of South Shields, but 11 places below Huddersfield.

This year, Garrington have produced a separate list for Scotland, and as with the England and Wales lists, there are surprises. Edinburgh doesn't crack the top 10, while Glasgow, Stirling and St Andrews are 65th, 57th and 55th respectively.

‘While prime prices rose in Scotland, they stayed flat in much of southern England and Wales,' Hopper adds.

'Our research suggests that the most attractive buying opportunities aren’t limited to London, and extend to several other perennially popular locations that offer excellent amenities, a high standard of living and now improving value too.’

While Glasgow didn't score highly, its suburbs did: Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire topped the charts, one of three affluent suburbs of Scotland's biggest city — alongside Bearsden and Bishopbriggs — that featured in the Scottish top 10. Their rankings were boosted by high average salaries and fast connections into the city centre.

In Milngavie, this ‘highly appealing detached villa is sure to attract interest from those looking to acquire a long-term family home,’ says Rettie & Co, which is selling the property for £370,000.

But we’ve just covered the overall ranking of best places to live. Garrington Property Finders’s nifty interactive tool allows you to look up locations as well as rank places by individual criteria.

So, if you’d prefer to live in a place that comes up trumps for wellbeing (who doesn’t?), you might want to scope out Devon. Four of the five top places ranked by wellbeing are located in the county.

London, meanwhile, dominates the heritage and culture ranking, with Westminster, City of London, Camden, Kensington & Chelsea, Islington, and Lambeth all in the top 10. Outside the capital, Bath, Ramsgate, Brighton and Hove, and York also feature.

Ranking the locations by natural environment also delivers some unsurprising spots, with Royal Tunbridge Wells (another commuter favourite), scenic Shaftesbury, and Alnwick — where two Harry Potter movies were filmed - all making the top 15.

But there are some eyebrow-raisers in this particular ranking too. The town of Swindon, for example, is named the 15th best place to live in England and Wales for natural environment. And a further scroll down the list reveals that while Croydon is ranked 67th, the sought-after market town of Marlborough comes in 1,333rd place.

Hopper argues that prime property is no longer about reputation alone. In his view, ‘it’s increasingly about data-driven desirability’.

He adds: ‘Today’s most successful locations blend a winning combination of lifestyle, investment security and accessibility.’