Nearly 800,000 home moves (2.6%) have taken place in the last year, despite numerous periods of lockdown restrictions and the wider ongoing problems caused by the pandemic.

With the extension of the stamp duty holiday set to encourage further moves, national estate agent Keller Williams UK has analysed the number of homes sold across England, Wales and Scotland over the last 12 months to unveil Britain’s current home moving hotspots.

Scotland moves the most

The research shows that Scotland moves the most, with 81,751 transactions in the last 12 months equating to 3.1% of all homes in the country.

Scotland accounts for seven of the top 15 home moving hotspots at a local authority (LA) level, with East Lothian seeing 4.1% of all homes hit the market in the last 12 months. Midlothian (3.9%), East Renfrewshire (3.7%), South Lanarkshire (3.7%) and Renfrewshire (3.5%) also rank as some of Britain’s most prominent home mover hotspots.

Moving hotspots in England

Some 2.6% of all households made a move across England over the last 12 months, with the South West (2.9%), the South East (2.8%) and East Midlands (2.8%) high on the list.

However, it’s Harborough in Leicestershire that tops the table at LA level, with 1,477 transactions completed in the last year resulting in 3.7% of the total property market moving in the area.

South Derbyshire (3.6%), North West Leicestershire (3.5%), Central Bedfordshire (3.4%) and Bracknell Forest (3.4%) also moved the most of all areas in England.

Who is wandering in Wales?

The data shows 2.3% of the total Welsh property market decided to move last year, with Vale of Glamorgan seeing this figure increase to 3% – the highest in Wales.

Bridgend also saw a large number of home movers with 2.8% of all homes in the area selling, along with Conwy (2.6%), Denbighshire, Newport and Flintshire (2.5%).

London sees the lowest moves

At just 1.9%, the capital saw the smallest number of home movers in relation to market size, although this did climb to 2.9% in Bromley, making it the capital’s home moving hotspot.

Havering (2.8%), Bexley (2.7%), Richmond (2.6%) and Kingston (2.5%) also ranked high.

Ben Taylor, chief executive officer of Keller Williams, says: “Although 2.6% of households choosing to move doesn’t sound high, it’s important to remember this is in relation to 28.5 million total homes across Britain and against a backdrop of pandemic uncertainty and lockdown restrictions.”

“In this context, nearly 800,000 successful home moves is pretty impressive, and the fact we’ve managed it while also juggling the strange new normal of lockdown life is pretty commendable.”

He says with the stamp duty holiday running until the end of June for homes worth up to £500,000, we should see the number of people selling up and moving on remain high.