East Staffordshire has come top in a new league table of Britain’s hottest – and most Brexit-proof – property markets, compiled by Garrington.

The property buying agents found that house prices in this rural corner of the West Midlands are rising 10% a year, four times faster than the UK average, with employment in the area rocketing 9.4% in 2018.

It was the star performer in a league table that analysed Land Registry and ONS data to compare the strongest price growth with two other factors that can determine the potential for future appreciation – property affordability and the pace of job creation.

The top 10 areas have an affordability ratio – the average property price divided by the average resident’s salary – better than the England and Wales average of 7.77 – and a rate of job creation in excess of the national average.

The rise of Rochdale

Second in the ranking was Rochdale in Greater Manchester, which saw house price growth of 8.7% and employment growth of 7.0% in 2018, yet has a very attractive affordability ratio of 5.6.

The top 10 property hotspots are as follows:

1 East Staffordshire, West Midlands
2 Rochdale, North West
3 Derby, East Midlands
4 Salford, North West
5 Bassetlaw, East Midlands
6 Nottingham, East Midlands
7 Cardiff, Wales
8 Lincoln, East Midlands
9 Sheffield, Yorkshire and the Humber
10 Liverpool, North West

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders, said: “While at a national level the property market is cooling to the point of inertia – with the number of transactions slipping and average prices rising at the slowest pace for five years – a number of hot micro-markets have emerged that completely buck the trend.

“The Midlands has long since eclipsed London and East Anglia as the region with the fastest rising house prices, and our analysis picks out the emerging hotspots that enjoy the best combination of Brexit-defying economic momentum, good affordability and, above all, strong future growth potential.”

Rental potential

The top hotspot for would-be landlords is Ceredigion, where average rents rose by 8.7% in 2018, nearly nine times the UK average rise of 1%.

The Welsh county, which boasts a spectacular coastline and has a large student population in the university town of Aberystwyth, offers very strong rental yields, at 6.2% for those letting out flats.