This English Coal Mining Town Saw House Prices Soar in 2022

A little-known, former coal-mining town in the center of the country was the U.K.’s price-growth hot spot of 2022, according to a report released Friday in the U.K. from Rightmove. 

Eastwood in Nottinghamshire saw its average asking prices jump 29% to £231,381 (US$275,795) in 2022, up from £179,194 the year before, according to the online property portal. 

“We have found that Eastwood has always been a popular location for buyers,” Will Watson, director at Watsons Estate Agents in Nottinghamshire,This English Coal Mining Town Saw House Prices Soar in 2022 said in the report.

The town, which is the birthplace of novelist D.H. Lawrence, offers a wide variety of retail offerings, good schools, transport links and proximity to the countryside, alongside homes that often sell for below the national average, Mr. Watson said. 

“It’s no surprise that people have been relocating to the Eastwood area for more value,” he added. 

Hulme, in Greater Manchester, ranked second for price gains, where average asking prices rose by 26% between 2021 and 2022. 

Luxury seaside enclave Sandbanks in Poole, Dorset, rounded out the top three with asking prices ticking up by 22%.

In comparison, average asking prices were 5.6% higher across Great Britain at the end of 2022 than they were at the same time in 2021, and 19.7% higher than 2019, just before the pandemic began and pushed the property market into overdrive. 

It looks like they’ve hit their ceiling though. 

“We expect average asking prices to drop by 2% next year now that the frenetic period for the market is over,” Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s property expert, said in the report. “It is likely that some sellers, particularly those in locations and sectors of the market that have benefited the most from pandemic price growth, may be willing to give up some of their gains in this calmer market in order to negotiate a successful sale.”