Recent analysis by property website Zoopla has found that Edinburgh and Croydon are the most 'in-demand' areas for UK property.

Third place for London

Central London only occupied third place in the rankings while, in top-placed Edinburgh, an advertised property typically attracted 145 per cent more inquiries from would-be buyers than the national average. Croydon attracted just over 100 per cent more interest than the average.Zoopla analysed the volume of email inquiries to estate agents from potential buyers about properties listed on websites over the 12 months to April this year.

Cooling in the London property market

Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said, “This new set of figures gives us valuable insight into which areas of the British property market are most in demand.“It's interesting to see Edinburgh outranking London, which perhaps reflects a cooling in the property market for central London. It's no surprise that we see high demand for properties in the outer London suburbs, such as Croydon, as they prove to be an affordable alternative for buyers.”

Key word searches depend on the area

The research also looked at key words searched by house-hunters in different areas. People interested in Edinburgh and Croydon, for instance, often included the word 'garage' in their search, while 'freehold' was commonly included in searches of central London properties.This contrasted with searches for homes in Wales where 'acres' emerged as a priority while, across Scotland, the most popular keyword search was 'sea'.

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Related news:

• Nationwide: House price growth in UK continues to stutter
• London prices ‘set to fall in real terms’
• Renting now cheaper than buying in most UK cities

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According to the survey, the least popular place to search for homes was Preston, which attracted 55 per cent less interest than the national average, while Wigan, Warrington and Newport in Wales were not far behind.Meanwhile, with prices in central London being so high, outlying boroughs such as Bexley, Hounslow, and Barking and Dagenham have been attracting increasing interest, while Richmond-upon-Thames was not a popular search for would-be buyers. There again, as Zoopla pointed out, the average house price in Richmond is currently £919,226, while it is £293,135 in Barking and Dagenham.Top 10 most in-demand areas (percentage more enquiries than average; average house price):

1. Edinburgh, 145%, £270,991
2. Croydon, 104%, £375,152
3. Central London, 77% £778,530
4. Glasgow, 67%, £180,151
5. Leicester, 56%, £216,230
6. Birmingham, 55%, £185,825
7. Swansea, 42%, £166,838
8. Reading, 39%, £424,388
9. Milton Keynes, 33%, £298,621
10. Coventry, 32%, £193,264

Least in-demand areas:

1. Preston, minus 55%, £183,584
2. Wigan, minus 51%, £155,946
3. Newport (South Wales), minus 51%, £164,126
4. Warrington, minus 51%, £204,592
5. Doncaster, minus 48%, £151,108
6. Telford, minus 48%, £170,232
7. York, minus 48%, £278,499
8. Chesterfield, minus 46%, £170,634
9. Stockport, minus 44%, £247,079
10. Derby, minus 41%, £195,268

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