• Lisburn, Northern Ireland, is the UK city most interested in moving house, with monthly searches for terms relating to moving home averaging 37,670 per 100,000 people.
• Fellow Northern Ireland city Bangor claimed second place on the study with 36,083 monthly searches per 100,000 residents.
• Colchester, Norwich, York, Chester and Derby all ranked among the UK cities most interested in moving house.
Lisburn is the UK city most interested in moving house, a new study has found.
Moving platform Getamover.co.uk analysed Google search data for over 170 terms relating to property portals like Rightmove, Zoopla, and PropertyPal, as well as various other phrases relevant to house moves such as ‘property to rent’, ‘house for sale’ and ‘find a property’. The monthly searches were totalled and averaged for each UK city, before being ranked per 100,000 residents to reveal the places most interested in moving home.
Northern Ireland’s Lisburn ranked top as the UK city most interested in moving house. Searches for terms related to house moves averaged 37,670 each month per 100,000 people. The most popular search term among the city’s residents was for regional estate agent ‘PropertyPal’, which represented over 67% of the average monthly searches.
Bangor in Northern Ireland fell just short of top spot as the UK city most interested in moving house. On average, 36,083 monthly searches are completed per 100,000 people in the city, falling just behind Lisburn in the study. Much like Lisburn, local housing website ‘PropertyPal’ dominated Google searches in the area, accounting for more than half of the total searches for terms relating to moving house every month.
Colchester claimed third place on the study and ranked as the English city most interested in moving house. Colchester rated below the Northern Ireland cities with an average monthly search volume of 34,916 per 100,000 people. Residents searched for popular UK property website ‘Rightmove’ more than any other term, averaging 22,783 searches a month, over 20,000 more than any other term linked to house moves.
Norwich is the fourth city most interested in moving house according to Google search data. Residents of the city search for house move terms an average of 34,173 times a month per 100,000 people. The most popular search terms in the area include ‘Rightmove’, ‘Rightmove Norwich’ and ‘Zoopla’.
York rounded out the five UK cities where people are most interested in moving house. The Northeast city averages a monthly search volume of 33,301 per 100,000 people for terms related to house moves. Much like every English city in the study, ‘Rightmove’ was the most popular search term in York, with locals searching for the property website an average of 20,081 times every month per 100,000 residents.
Chester is the only place in the northwest of England to be named among the UK cities most interested in moving house. The city ranked sixth on the study with an average monthly search volume of 32,794 per 100,000. Property portals Rightmove, Zoopla and SpareRoom were some of the most popular search terms for residents.
Chelmsford, Southend-on-Sea, Derby and Cambridge completed the list of the 10 UK cities most interested in moving house. Average monthly searches per 100,000 residents were over 29,000 for each city.
Aberdeen ranked bottom as the UK city where people are least interested in moving house. Just 10,485 searches per 100,000 people are completed for terms relating to house moves every month in the city. Aberdeen averaged 5,000 less monthly searches per 100,000 than Dunfermline, which placed second-last in the study.
Table: The UK cities most interested in moving house
| Ranking | City | Population | Avg Monthly Search Volume | Avg Monthly Search Volume Per 100K |
| 1 | Lisburn | 67,165 | 25,301 | 37,670 |
| 2 | Bangor | 78,703 | 28,398 | 36,083 |
| 3 | Colchester | 98,605 | 34,429 | 34,916 |
| 4 | Norwich | 248,422 | 84,893 | 34,173 |
| 5 | York | 188,817 | 62,878 | 33,301 |
| 6 | Chester | 158,729 | 52,054 | 32,794 |
| 7 | Chelmsford | 145,501 | 46,342 | 31,850 |
| 8 | Southend-on-Sea | 135,719 | 41,804 | 30,802 |
| 9 | Derby | 91,365 | 27,482 | 30,079 |
| 10 | Cambridge | 88,220 | 26,121 | 29,609 |
David Burrows, Head of Getamover.co.uk, commented on the findings: “Despite house prices rising 1.4% year-on-year in Northern Ireland, residents in the region still remain some of the most interested in moving house.
“House prices in Scotland have risen the most over the last year, according to the UK’s House Price Index, with the average price soaring 3.3% to £190,341 as of December 2023. With no Scottish representation in the top ranking, and Aberdeen and Dunfermline placed at the bottom of the study, you may find that aspiring homeowners in Scotland are biding their time and waiting for the prices to dip again before making their move in the property market.”