Bath, is the best place to live in England and Wales, according to Garrington Property Finders.

The buying agent said that the city’s mix of classical architecture, independent shops, rolling green hills and greener credentials took it to the top spot for the second year in a row.

The annual league table ranks nearly 1400 cities, towns and villages across England and Wales according to four criteria – natural beauty, architectural beauty, quality of life and environmental credentials.

Below are the 20 best places to living in England and Wales, including the average property price:

1. Bath – £659,417
2. Lyme Regis – £574,383
3. Salisbury – £497,247
4. Caton – £333,789
5. Kidwelly – £202,196
6. Fowey – £688,424
7. Wilton – £410,973
8. Hadleigh – £452,633
9. Folkestone – £395,204
10. Newport – £347,310
11. Shaftesbury – £435,494
12. Wallingford – £584,622
13. Colne – £200,859
14. Malmesbury – £487,524
15. Sudbury – £421,433
16. Rye – £531,347
17. Tenby – £461,603
18. Weymouth – £418,118
19. Hawkhurst – £511,124
20. Lancaster – £280,677

Beyond price

By looking beyond price, the ranking threw up some notable surprises, said Garrington.

While top-ranked Bath has been a desirable destination for millennia – and has sky-high prices to match – other high-scoring places offer greater value.

For example, at just £202,196, an average-sized family home in fifth-placed Kidwelly costs less than a third of what it would in Bath. The Welsh seaside town boasts a Norman castle and is close to the sandy beaches of Carmarthen Bay. It’s one of five towns and cities to make it into the top 20 where a typical family home costs under £350,000.

Wiltshire and Lancashire are the best represented counties in the league table, each claiming three of the top 20 spots.

Green credentials

The addition of the green category to this year’s ranking has shaken up the 2021 pecking order.

Just six of last year’s top 20 made it into the class of 2022, with new entrants Wallingford (Oxfordshire) and Shaftesbury (Dorset) climbing 318 and 31 places respectively, thanks to their strong green credentials.

Jonathan Hopper, CEO of Garrington Property Finders, said: “Offices may have reopened but the home-working genie is out of the bottle. With millions of people keen to continue working remotely at least some of the time, many are reassessing what they want from their home – and this shift is transforming Britain’s property market for good.

“If you’re unshackled from a daily commute, you instantly have much freer rein over where you live – and can buy in an area where you can get more home, and a better quality of life, for your money.”