Bedford leads the way on the UK property market

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Bedford is one of the UK’s property hot spots, according to a national survey of house sales.

More than half of homes up for sale in Bedford - 57 per cent - are either already sold subject to contract or under offer.

And only eight other places in the UK had a higher proportion of homes on the market but no longer available to buy.

Nick Kier, founding partner of Lane & Holmes estate agents, said: “We’ve just had a record month in terms of exchanges of contract so this is no surprise. Bedford has been the UK’s best-kept secret for many years and I think people are finally waking up to it.

“2015 was the year that the property market started to come back. This year it’s all been about getting instructions.

“The links to Bedford are a huge draw - it’s 35 minutes to St Pancras, from where you can get on the Eurostar or take the slower line further into London; we’re close to Luton Airport; and it’s got to be 20 minutes faster to get to Junction 13 of the M1 than it was just a few years ago.

“There’s many popular new areas like the Biddenham Loop - even if you aren’t moving there you have people moving from Bedford to those areas which keeps the market flowing.”

The figures for property popularity were collated by leading online estate agent, eMoov.co.uk

Russell Quirk, eMoov founder and CEO, said: “Although changes to second home stamp duty thresholds and the Leave vote may have tainted demand slightly due to an air of uncertainty, there seem to be a number of areas that have benefited with the market almost turned on its head in terms of desirability to buyers.

“2016 seems to have been a bit of a leveller where the property market is concerned, with many of the so-called “weaker” markets really seeing a spike in buyer demand, which will, in turn, result in a healthy increase in prices going into the New Year.”