32.1 miles – The average distance people go to escape living in Stoke-on-Trent

“How far do Stoke-on-Trent people go to move to a new house?” This was an intriguing question asked by one of my clients the other week. Readers of my property blog will know I love a challenge, especially when it comes to talking about the Stoke-on-Trent Property Market!

For the majority, the response is not very far. It is much more common for homeowners and tenants in Great Britain to move across town than to the next town or county. Until now, it’s been hard to say how many homeowners and tenants moved from (and to) relatively far away to buy or rent their new home. However, I carried out some research and requested some statistics from the Royal Mail. What came back was fascinating!

Using statistics for the 12 months up to the middle of Autumn 2016, 486 households moved out of Stoke-on-Trent, moving an average distance of 32.17 miles - the equivalent of moving from Stoke-on-Trent to Chester (as the crow flies).  The greatest distance travelled was 333 miles – that’s more than 12.5 marathons (when someone moved to Dingwall in Scotland).

Considering there were 763 property sales in ST4 for example in the year and countless tenant moves, the numbers seems consistent – once you find a town you like, you tend to want to settle down and if you do move, you might only move to a different neighbour-hood, or for better transport links or, to be closer to the school you want to get your children into, but the likelihood is you won’t travel far.

I then turned my attention to people moving into Stoke-on-Trent. Using the same statistics for the 12 months up to the middle of Autumn 2016, 373 households moved into the ST4 area of Stoke-on-Trent, moving an average distance of 33.86 miles - the equivalent of moving from Wrexham to Stoke-on-Trent (again as the crow flies). The greatest distance travelled was 314 miles – that’s more than 12 marathons (when someone moved from Peterhead in Scotland to Stoke-on-Trent).

I have looked at the data of every person moving into Stoke-on-Trent and these have been plotted on a map of the UK. Looking at the map below, it shows exactly where most people come from, when moving into Stoke-on-Trent. As you can see, there are a high proportion of people moving from London and the South East.

So, what does all this mean for the landlords and homeowners of Stoke-on-Trent?

When an agent markets a property for rent or let, it is vital to know the tenant or property buyer well, that the properties they are letting/selling fit those tenants/buyers, so they almost sell themselves. These days that means not only knowing how many bedrooms, reception rooms etc., a property offers but the budget buyers and tenants want to spend on a property in that area as well as where they come from.

The estate and lettings industry loves the mantra “location, location, location”. I say it might be helpful to factor in where (and how) far people are moving from, so the property can be sold or let more easily. Many say knowledge is power and whilst I do enjoy writing my blog on the Stoke-on-Trent property market, I also use the information to help my clients buy, let and sell well. So for example, the information gained for this article, will enable my team and I to be more efficient in where to direct our marketing resources to ensure we maximise our clients’ properties sale-ability or rent-ability.