Looking to move somewhere new but can't decide where? Well how about the best place to live in the UK as chosen by a team of experts who've done the ground work and whittled a selection of 72 places down – from Scottish isles to remote Welsh villages to some of our liveliest cities – to find one overall winner based on a number of factors?

Click or scroll through and read on to find out who came out on top in the coveted list, plus the winning place for each of the UK's regions...

The team behind the annual Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide visited each of the places on the long list to talk to locals and assess the areas in terms of affordability, schools, transport, culture, green spaces, the state of high street, as well as mobile phone signal and Broadband speed.

And while these aspects all play a part in the decision process, Helen Davies, editorial projects director and Best Places to Live editor, says more than anything they are looking for strong communities: “One thing all our chosen locations have in common is that the people who live in them are proud to call them home.”

This region of England that begins just north of London and stretches all the way from Essex to Norfolk, taking in cities like Cambridge and Norwich along the way, as well as historic towns and pretty Fenland villages, is one of the driest parts of the UK. 

And while it may not have the green hills of places like Surrey, it has variety in other ways, and planned infrastructure to improve road links and the growth of tech jobs means ‘Silicon Fen’ may become even more popular over the next few years.

The Sunday Times Best Places to Live Guide is sponsored by Halifax, which provided an average house price for each of the areas to help judges assess affordability. For the East of England, the place that came out on top was the Essex city of Chelmsford, the birthplace of radio, which does well for its proximity to London and house prices. While on average, a property in Chelmsford is higher than the regional average of £429,000, at £468,400, it's still a good bit cheaper than buying in the capital.

Another factor on which it scored highly was on transport and accessibility, with a new train station planned for the Beaulieu Park development (pictured) due to open in 2025.

Cheap it most certainly is not, but London is still hard to beat in terms of career opportunities, food and drink, and cultural assets.

Neighbourhoods like East Dulwich are noted in the long list for having one of the best independent shopping streets in London, while Stoke Newington is lauded for its close-knit community, and Telegraph Hill for its conservation area.

And that's the thing about London, as though people who don’t live here imagine it's all one, big, non-stop rat race, there are still beautiful quiet spots to be found, as seen here. Can you guess where the capital's winning place is yet?

That's right, it's Walthamstow. Home to important habitats in the local wetlands seen in the previous photo, it also has a strong sense of community, cool hangouts, and period houses. And, with a new Soho Theatre due to open in the area in May 2025, its cultural attractions, which already include the excellent William Morris Gallery, are set to see a huge boost.

And according to Halifax, at an average of £532,800, house prices in the area are a fair bit below the London average of £618,900, making it relatively (and we use this word cautiously) affordable.

Home to the UK's second largest city – Birmingham – which sees its leafy suburb of Harborne, with its good schools, food scene, parks and period homes get a mention in the guide, as well as some attractive towns and picturesque villages, the Midlands offers rural living without feeling cut-off from everything. 

Indeed, community is king here, with the winning place in the region commended highly for its cooperative shop and cafe, which sits at the heart of village life.

That village is Ilmington, in Warwickshire, which sits on the edge of the Cotswolds and is everything a quintessentially English village should be with muddy-boot walkers trampling through its winding lanes throughout the week, some good pubs and not one but two village greens.

And while average house prices in the Midlands as a whole come in at a very reasonable £299,300, in Ilmington, all those assets come at a cost and if you wanted to buy here you'd be looking to pay in the region of £458,100.

According to the research, house prices in Northern Ireland have risen by a whopping 75 per cent in the past decade as cities like Belfast and Londonderry offer more career opportunities and locals can enjoy both the buzz of city life with the calm of coastal and pastoral scenes.

With more Game of Thrones locations than anywhere else, plus gorgeous backdrops like the soothing Mourne Mountains seen here, the appeal of this region that also includes other shortlisted places such as high-class Holywood, just outside Belfast, and the seaside town of Portstewart, is clear.

However, it's the coastal village of Dundrum in County Down that comes out top in the region, with nearly every house having views of those beautiful Mourne Mountains, and the city lights of Belfast just a 45-minute drive away. The village is also making a bit of noise it terms of its food offerings, plus there's a great local pub.

Average house prices in Northern Ireland as a whole are £215,400 while in Dundrum you can expect to pay just a little over that, with average property prices of £222,300.

In England's North and Northeast, areas range from busy cities like Newcastle to the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland's castle-strewn coastline. Cities like York are expensive due to the highly sought-after schools and excellent transport links but the place everyone seems to be talking about at the moment is Leeds – the biggest financial centre outside London – with growing cultural and shopping appeal.

But what about the region's winning spot? Well for that you'll have to head to a quieter part of West Yorkshire...

Ilkley is this region’s winning place thanks to its appealing town centre, easy commute to Leeds, and moors on its doorstep. The UK's overall winner in 2022 was also praised by judges for the sporting and cultural offerings available to young people and its full engaged community.

While average house prices across the whole of this region come in at £248,800, the average asking price for the town of Ilkley is over double that at £532,000.

England's Northwest is the third most populated part of the UK and with plans to create a ‘Northern Arc’ that would spread from the River Mersey to the Pennines and include improved transport connections, its star looks set to rise even more.

The Victorian and Edwardian houses of Manchester’s the Heatons, which have long attracted a professional, fun-loving crowd of homeowners, now have a rival from the ‘other’ big Northwest city in terms of best places to live... 

That's right, it's the Liverpool suburb of Woolton, made famous by its connection to a certain Paul McCartney and John Lennon, who met here for the first time all those years ago, that takes the region’s top spot.

Beatles' connections aside, the suburb is home to lots of independent coffee shops, food shops, and cool bars, and it is also enormously family friendly. With average house prices of £281,800, it's also pretty much spot on the Northwest's overall average of £281,700.

Several locations in Scotland made the list, including the Inner Hebridean isle of Tiree whose creative community and the amazing sunrises and sunsets are enough to have us considering it. Other places to give the winner some tough competition include the Strathbungo neighbourhood of Glasgow and Edinburgh's laid-back Stockbridge area.

However, there can only be one winner and it may look familiar to anyone who has looked at this list in previous years...

Yes, the regional winner for Scotland this year is North Berwick, which in 2024 was named overall winner in the Times Best Places to Live in the UK guide.

It's the combination of great beaches, good schools and half-hour train ride to Edinburgh that has pushed it over the line and with average house prices of £523,500 – way above the £407,200 you can expect to pay in Edinburgh's Stockbridge – it's fair to say the word is officially out.

Whether you want to be within easy commute of the capital or to nip off for a day at the beach or a countryside walk, the Southeast of England – which is officially the UK's sunniest place – seems to have it all.

The fresh air, trendy shops and Chiltern Hills views offered by Amersham in Buckinghamshire ensure its place on the list, while well-heeled Farnham in Surrey and hip Hove in East Sussex are also spotlighted but they are all pipped to the post by somewhere you probably haven't considered...

Petersfield in Hampshire is the region's winning place thanks to its arty and sporty pursuits, good museum, art gallery and thriving community. That's not to mention its historic town centre and the beautiful South Downs backdrop.

Halifax puts the average house prices in the Southeast region at £479,500, with prices in Petersfield creeping up to just over £605,100, so it seems you do get what you pay for.

Covering everywhere from Bristol to Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, England’s Southwest may be the largest region in the UK, but it's also the third least populous, meaning more space for you to enjoy it all.

The culture and friendliness you'll encounter in Bristol make it a popular place to live for many, while Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds and Sherborne in Dorset – complete with its new art gallery, which is a hub of the community – make them worthy contenders too.

However, the best place to live in the region, so say the judges, is the Chew Valley, a rural idyll that is home to unspoiled countryside and sustainable businesses with a growing gastro scene that is rooted in locality.  

Villages like Chew Magna (pictured) are close enough to Bristol for when you need a cultural fix, while at £512,500, average property prices in the Chew Valley are slightly lower than the £527,800 you can expect to pay in Bristol's Hotwells and Cliftonwood.

With almost a fifth of the country designated a national park, glorious beaches such as this one are far from an anomaly in Wales. Though Cardiff (especially smart suburbs such as Pontcanna and Llandaff) is the centre of the housing market here, it's far from the only choice.

The seaside resort of Penarth makes the list, as does the Pembrokeshire village of Maenclochog, but they have all been beaten to the top spot by the place pictured. 

Yes, it's the Gower Peninsula that comes out top in Wales thanks to its epic landscapes of wide beaches and big skies, where it sometimes feels as though you have the place to yourself and yet the relative roar of Swansea is but a short drive away.

With house prices in Gower averaging £310,200, it's just marginally higher than the Wales national average of £266,500 and worth every penny, we’d say.

And so to the overall winner of the Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide: Saffron Walden, in Essex.

This genteel market town has seen off the competition of 71 other locations due to its picture-postcard medieval buildings, good state schools, emerging food scene, and cultural assets. It's also well connected on the commuter belt to either London or Cambridge, and with a new demographic moving in, it's finally shaking off its rather old-fashioned reputation to be considered a buzzy place to be.

Locals even liken its weekly Saturday market to being in the south of France, which sounds pretty good for us, if you can afford the average property asking price of £607,100 that is.

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