Bristol home buyers stay local

Residents in Bristol are voting with their feet by staying put in 2009. The latest research from reallymoving.com, the UK’s leading provider of online quotes for home-moving services, reveals that last year Bristol was the city which retained the highest proportion of its residents.

An impressive 61.7% of Bristol residents chose to stay within the BS postcode zone when moving home last year, taking advantage of the wide variety of housing stock within a short distance of the city centre. With a thriving local economy, sustained over the past decade by the many financial and technical industries that have located in the city, Bristol has held its position as one of most populated cities in the UK. The industrial presence has ensured that demand for housing is high, and along with a top university and convenient travel links into London, the property market in Bristol remains buoyant.

A large number of young professionals are now choosing to either move to the city or opting to stay on after university, making it their home. In addition, the airport has seen an increasing number of flights to international business and tourist destinations, reinforcing its strong commercial position.

Bristol is closely followed by the seaside towns of Brighton, where 61% of homemovers stayed within the BN postcode area in 2009, and Bournemouth (BH), where the proportion was 60.6%. The national average for local moves was 43.4%.

Rosemary Rogers, Director, reallymoving.com comments on the findings:

“Our research shows that the property market in the UK is much more fluid than many people may think, with an average of only 43.4% of homemovers staying within their postcode areas.

“Bristol, Brighton and Bournemouth are all good sized cities with a broad economic base. Residents will often have everything they need close at hand, from schools and healthcare and transport links to jobs and leisure facilities, meaning there is little incentive to move away.

“However, in the case of those towns that are struggling to retain residents, this is likely due to the type of resident in the area. Uxbridge is traditionally home to a high proportion of first-time buyers who are likely to live in the town on the outskirts of London as a stepping stone to the Home Counties. There is also a large student population at Brunel University and, being close to Heathrow, there is a more transient population.”