The UK Cities Closest to Achieving the 15 Minute City

Key Takeaways

• The 15-minute city model aims to provide residents with essential public services within a 15-minute radius by foot or bike. This includes access to shops, schools, parks, leisure facilities, and healthcare.
• Four UK cities have achieved the 15-minute city status. These cities prioritize reducing stress, pollution, and reliance on car travel for short distances.
• Nottingham is the cheapest city to buy a house within a 15-minute walking distance of essential services. Edinburgh and Bristol also rank well.
• Eleven cities in the study currently have public transport accessible within a 15-minute walk from homes. Aberdeen stands out as an affordable option.

The results from the research revealed that from the 43 cities analysed, four from the UK have achieved the 15 minute city concept.
Delving deeper, we also compared the top-ranking cities with average house prices, revealing that Nottingham is the cheapest city to buy a house within a 15-minute walking distance of each of the seven public services analysed. Also achieving top marks were Edinburgh and Bristol. 

11 of the 43 cities analysed were found to currently have access to public transport within a 15 minute walk of their home. The cheapest cities to buy a house in of these 11 cities are Aberdeen with an average house price of £189,334. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Liverpool, and Nottingham also achieved 100% with their average house price valued at under £250,000.

Of the seven services analysed, cinemas, nightclubs and theatres were found to be the category that was hardest for cities to score 100% on. The four best cities to live in if you want options for social activities within walking distance of your home are Coventry, York, Edinburgh and Bristol. Of these five, Coventry is the cheapest to live in with the average house price costing just over £250,000.

There are a total of seven cities within walking distance of a park, stadium or gym, making them ideal destinations for homeowners looking to maintain an active lifestyle. Of these cities, the cheapest to live in is Nottingham where the average house price is £244,678. Maybe somewhat surprisingly, London also achieved top marks in this category.

One of the most important public services analysed by the tool is access to medical facilities within walking distance of your home. Seven cities have either a pharmacy, clinic, or hospital within a 15-minute walk of every home, with Nottingham once again ranking as the cheapest of those cities to buy a house in.

Community building is a key benefit of the 15 minute city concept which is why having access to either a library or community centre is an important factor. In total 16 of the 43 cities analysed were found to have either a library or community centre within a 15 minute walk of their home. The cheapest of these cities is Aberdeen, where the average house price is just under £190,000.

A key consideration for homeowners that either currently have children or may be looking to start a family in the future is accessibility to local schools. Our research found that just over a third of the cities analysed were within walking distance of an education facility. The top three cheapest areas of those that scored 100% were Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Peterborough and Nottingham.

As would probably be expected, access to either a restaurant or a supermarket within walking distance of everyone’s house is the factor that saw the highest number of cities rank at 100%. 17 of the 43 cities were within 15-minute walk of a restaurant or supermarket. Of those 17, the city with the lowest average house price was Aberdeen at £189,334.

As part of the research, we also analysed how much work cities in the US must do to become a 15-minute city. Compared to the average score of 94% for UK cities, that was much lower for the 183 US cities that were analysed. The city that had the highest average percentage across the same seven public services analysed for the UK cities above, was found to be the city of Provo, which is in the state of Utah.

The research also discovered that being within walking distance of the various public services analysed is likely to make the average house price in your area increase. Houses in the 96-100% bracket had the highest average house price, even when excluding London from the data. Likewise, those that were in the 60-80% bracket had the lowest average house price at £190k compared to £359k for the top bracket.

Looking to move to a new area with more facilities within walking distance of your home? Here at David Wilson Homes we have a variety of new homes that are sure to give you the comfort you desire. Moving in is easier than you think thanks to some of our great offers and schemes such as deposit unlock and help to buy Wales

Methodology

Using https://www.cityaccessmap.com/ we accessed every UK and US city that was available and identified their 15 minute City %. Then using Rightmove data in the UK and https://www.realtor.com/ in the US we identified the average house price within each city.

Using these metrics we identified the top cities with "15 Minute Cities" concept and if there was any correlation between the concept and house price.

We created our own overall average for 15 minute cities using the breakdown of each city for the 7 services. 43 cities in the UK were analysed and 183 in the US.
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