Margate has seen the biggest jump in asking prices outside of London this year, data shows.

The Kent seaside resort topped the table of locations where prices of homes coming to market have gone up the most over 2015, according to property website Rightmove.

Prices soared by 24.2% to an average of £204,631. The average asking price rise across England and Wales as a whole was 7.1%.

The property boom in Margate was fuelled by Londoners seeking affordable homes outside the capital. Other commuter towns in Kent also saw substantial price increases.

Rightmove’s top five highest asking price growth areas outside London include Gravesend in third spot, where prices soared by 20.5%. Ramsgate surged by 18.6% and Dartford rose by 17.4%.

Altrincham in Greater Manchester was the only town not in Kent to make it into the top five. Asking prices in this leafy market town just outside Manchester leapt by 21.9% to an average of £484,258.

The most searched for places outside London for both buyers and renters were Bristol and Cambridge, Rightmove’s data shows. York was the third most searched place for buyers, while Manchester was third for renters.

The busiest day of the year for property searches was Monday, August 10, when pages were viewed more than 58 million times.

The average length of time for a residential property to sell was 62 days in 2015. Properties sold the quickest in the Hertfordshire town of Welwyn Garden City, where homes were up for sale an average of 25 dats, followed by nearby Hertford, where they were snapped up in 26 days.

Sam Mitchell, a housing expert with Rightmove, says this year saw demand reach record levels for house hunters.

“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,” he says.

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