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Best places to live in the UK, ranked by what can be measured: price, rent and crime

Best places to live in the UK ranked separately by price, rent and recorded crime for 75 cities, with official data and no hidden composite score.

4 min read
Last reviewed 4 November 2026
By Your Property Check team

Part 1 of 8

How we decided what to rank

General information, not advice. "Best" is a judgement, and a single score would hide the choices behind it. So each table below ranks cities on one measure only, from official data, and you can weigh them yourself. We took the cities in our city report list and kept the 75 that match one council area in all three datasets. Each figure is for the council area, which can be wider than the city centre. London is not in the list, and Scotland is not included because the crime table covers England and Wales only. Maidstone and Medway are left out because the Office for National Statistics (ONS) notes that IT issues put recent Kent crime data into an unassigned group.

The three measures are the UK House Price Index (UK HPI) average price for August 2026, the ONS Price Index of Private Rents mean two-bedroom rent for August 2026, and ONS police recorded crime per 1,000 residents for the year ending March 2026. For comparison, the England and Wales rate was 84.7 per 1,000.

Part 2 of 8

Lowest average price

City	Average price	Two-bedroom rent a month
Hull	£136,593	£621
Burnley	£136,703	£588
Blackpool	£138,065	£652
Middlesbrough	£142,868	£634
Sunderland	£147,763	£647
Stoke-on-Trent	£150,112	£662
Blackburn	£160,727	£662
Doncaster	£172,770	£636

At the other end, the highest average prices in the 75 were St Albans (£655,974), Guildford (£537,660), Oxford (£478,080), Cambridge (£470,360) and Woking (£437,628).

Part 3 of 8

Lowest recorded crime rate

City	Crime per 1,000 residents	Average price
Woking	62.3	£437,628
St Albans	64.2	£655,974
York	65.7	£311,865
Swindon	69.6	£263,685
Chelmsford	70.4	£376,682
Warrington	70.4	£259,224
Guildford	72.1	£537,660
Lancaster	72.9	£203,781

Read crime rates with care. They count police recorded offences, excluding fraud, per resident of the council area. Areas that draw large numbers of visitors, shoppers or commuters can show a higher rate than their resident population alone would suggest, and we have not adjusted for that. They also do not describe any single street.

Part 4 of 8

Lowest two-bedroom rent

City	Two-bedroom rent a month	Average price
Burnley	£588	£136,703
Rotherham	£615	£191,052
Hull	£621	£136,593
Barnsley	£630	£173,053
Middlesbrough	£634	£142,868
Doncaster	£636	£172,770
Sunderland	£647	£147,763
Blackpool	£652	£138,065

The ONS rent figures are marked as official statistics in development, so treat them as a guide to the level, not an exact quote for a particular flat.

Part 5 of 8

Highest rents and biggest price moves

The highest two-bedroom rents in the 75 were in Oxford (£1,667 a month), St Albans (£1,633), Cambridge (£1,613), Watford (£1,599) and Bristol (£1,544). Over the twelve months to August 2026 the biggest rises in average price were in Hull (6.6%), Burnley (6.0%), Newcastle (5.8%), Blackpool (5.5%) and St Helens (5.1%). The biggest falls were in Oxford (2.9% lower), Woking (2.7%), Chelmsford (2.4%), Cambridge (2.2%) and Brighton (2.1%). A rising price is not a quality mark and a falling one is not a warning; both simply describe the past year.

Part 6 of 8

What the tables show together

No city appears at the top of all three lists. The cheapest places to buy and rent sit in different parts of the country from the lowest-crime places, and several of the lowest-crime places are among the more expensive. Woking and St Albans, for example, have the lowest crime rates and also some of the highest average prices. That is the trade-off a combined score would hide.

Part 7 of 8

Reading the tables fairly

Every figure is an average for a whole council area, so it hides big differences between streets. A low price may reflect older stock, weaker local jobs or a smaller market, and a high price may reflect commuting links. Use the tables to shortlist places to visit, not to decide.

Part 8 of 8

Questions this cannot answer

Best place for families. Schools, space, parks and commute matter most, and we do not rank them here. Our schools near you tool is a starting point, and school places are set by each school's admission rules.
Cheapest good place. The price and rent tables show the cheapest, but "good" is yours to define. Visit at different times of day and check the crime picture for the exact postcode with our crime rate by postcode tool.
Flood risk. We have no city flood table, so it is not ranked. Check an address with our flood risk checker.

For every area page, see areas, and for price movement over the last year see where house prices are falling.

This page is general information, not advice.

Our take

No single place wins, so weigh the trade-offs yourself

We think the honest finding is that no city tops all three lists. Woking and St Albans have the lowest recorded crime but some of the highest prices, while Hull and Burnley are cheapest to buy and rent. A combined score would hide that trade-off, so we do not give one.

Once you have a shortlist, look at real streets, not council-wide averages. Our sold prices tool shows actual HM Land Registry sold-price transactions for any postcode, so you can see what homes in an area really sell for.

Check sold prices

Our opinion, drawn from the facts on this page: not advice and not a forecast. We earn from OfferCheck reports and from introducing sellers to cash buyers, so weigh it with that in mind (see our disclosure). We are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.

Questions, answered

Frequently asked questions

What is the best place to live in the UK?

There is no single answer, because it depends on your budget, work, family and priorities. We rank 75 cities separately on average price, two-bedroom rent and recorded crime, and we give no combined score.

What is the best place for families?

We do not rank this. The measurable data here covers price, rent and recorded crime only. For families, schools, space and commute matter, so check school admission rules and visit the area.

Where is the cheapest place to live?

On our August 2026 figures, Hull had the lowest average price at £136,593 and Burnley the lowest two-bedroom rent at £588 a month, among the 75 cities we compared.

Which cities have the lowest recorded crime?

Among the 75 cities, Woking had the lowest rate at 62.3 recorded offences per 1,000 residents in the year ending March 2026, then St Albans and York. The England and Wales rate was 84.7.

How is "best" decided here?

It is not. Each table ranks one measure from official data, and you choose how much each matters to you.

Where this comes from

Sources

Last reviewed 4 November 2026 by the Your Property Check team. This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own situation, speak to a conveyancing solicitor or another qualified professional.