House price growth in rural areas outstrips towns in Great Britain

Burford in Oxfordshire. The data captures some of the impact of the ‘race for space’ sparked by the pandemic, which led to a surge in numbers of people looking to move out of cities to rural areas, smaller towns or the coast. Photograph: David Davies/PA

Rural areas have trumped towns and cities in house price growth over the past five years, with a semi in the countryside the top-performing property type, according to data for Great Britain.

The figures, issued by the mortgage lender Nationwide, showed that average house prices in predominantly rural areas rose by 22% over the period, compared with 17% in predominantly urban areas.