Perhaps it’s the culture, maybe it’s the beaches, or perhaps it’s because Guardian readers named it Seaside Town of the Year in 2007. Whatever the reason, St Ives in Cornwall has been voted the ideal place to live by visitors to property website Rightmove.
The town, which boasts an outpost of the Tate and the Barbara Hepworth Museum, topped a list of locations in a poll of 2,600 people who were asked where there ideal home would be. The desirability of St Ives has already helped push asking prices up by 7.6% over the past year, to an average of £375,383.
The rest of the top three are both seaside towns, with Poole in second and Brighton in third. Edinburgh and York made up the rest of the top five. Rightmove’s director Miles Shipside said: “Many people choose to holiday by the sea, and given the choice of where to live they would like to make that a permanent arrangement. But it also seems many like the features of a smart town or city, so one near the coast seems the ideal location to live.
St Ives was one of several locations in the south-west to crop up on the list, and combined the area accounted for a fifth of the votes.
Why is St Ives so great? Let us know in your comments below
