Bassetlaw property: Tuxford, Markham and Rampton named in the top three property hotspots in England and Wales for selling a home

Tuxford, Markham and Rampton is one of three property hotspots according to building society The Cumberland.

It carried out a study that shows the main driver of sales during the lockdowns of 2020 was a big garden.

It looked at more than a million private property transactions and found that places with the biggest gardens were the most likely to see a boost - both in the number of houses sold and prices paid.

The analysis - the first of its kind - combined two key data sources from the Land Registry for prices paid and the Office for National Statistics on the average private garden sizes.

Along with the area in Bassetlaw, the other areas were in Pembrokeshire, in Wales and in Breckland in Norfolk.

Commenting on the survey's findings, Daniel Copley, consumer spokesperson at property website and app Zoopla, said: "The pandemic has led to a once-in-a-lifetime reassessment of home for many Brits, with the search for space leading to gardens and balconies becoming more important than ever before for a certain cohort of home hunters, as well as features like home offices as hybrid working becomes the norm.”

Of the 720 neighbourhoods with the biggest gardens, more than three-quarters saw average property prices rise in 2020 compared to 2019.

In Tuxford, Markham and Rampton, median garden size is 401.1 sq me; house sales rose from 105 in 2019 to 107 in 2020.

Median property prices were £207,599 in 2019, but £225,000 in 2020.

The Cumberland’s Cluster Manager for Carlisle, Will Park, said: “A garden has always been a desirable asset for any homeowner and the advantages of having your own private, outside space were never more clear than during the lockdowns of the last two years.

“We would encourage people to bring their gardens up to the best standard possible, particularly if they are looking to sell their house.”

To find the country's hotspots the 720 were then filtered by the following criteria: they must be in the 10 per cent of neighbourhoods with the biggest average garden size; the average property must have been below £250,000 in 2020; the median price must have risen by at least five per cent in 2020; and house sales must have increased in 2020 compared to 2019.

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