Leighton Buzzard properties fourth quickest to be snapped up

The average time for a property to sell across England and Wales was 62 days throughout 2015, with places in the East of England dominating the top ten fastest to sell list.

Leighton came fourth in the top ten quickest places to sell a property outside London, with properties spending an average of only 28 days on the site before being marked as sold.

Welwyn Garden City came top as it averaged 25 days, with just Hertford and Ely (both 26) ahead of Leighton.

Rightmove’s Sam Mitchell said: “This year saw demand reach record levels for home-hunters both buying and renting, and the ripple effect from London to the South East moved even further out to places like Essex and Hertfordshire, as you can see from how quick properties are selling in these locations. Usually January is Rightmove’s busiest month but the New Year rush stayed even longer this year, and we recorded our busiest ever month in March.

“It’ll be interesting to see how 2016 plays out with the new buy-to-let stamp duty coming in in April – prices are looking set to increase even further so those people having issues affording the location they want could think about looking at an area further afield. Although it might not be on their immediate wish list of places to look, they could find a more affordable property and have less of a battle against fellow potential buyers.”