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Average area price £1,218,570 ▲ 6.2%; zoopla.co.uk/market/marylebone
Why we love it It’s so much more fun than Kensington, Belgravia or Chelsea.

(Alamy)

32 London, Mayfair

Mayfair was never exactly going to the dogs, but Mount Street recently enjoyed an £80m regeneration, and now the Grosvenor Estate is giving Duke Street a makeover: it’s turned the roof of a power station into an urban oasis and curated new shops, mixing young designers and established cool brands (Jigsaw, Fernandez & Wells, The Shop at Bluebird). The Marylebone-like buzz should transform Mayfair’s image as a staid ghost town of buy-to-leave oligarchs’ houses — a 1930s car park has morphed into an art-deco boutique hotel, the Beaumont, presumably to rival Chiltern Firehouse.

About 400 homes will be built in the next few years as offices are converted: the string of future residences includes 20 Grosvenor Square (the former US naval HQ), One Grosvenor Square (the former Canadian High Commission), and Burlington Gate (a Richard Rogers conversion of an office building). But eye-watering prices — £10,000 a sq ft — mean the oligarchs will continue to dominate; in fact Mayfair looks set to take over from Knightsbridge as the premier international address.

Average area price £2,684,360 ▲ 2.43%; zoopla.co.uk/market/mayfair
Why we love it No other neighbourhood can match it for grandeur, but now it’s coming to life, too.

33 London, Muswell Hill

There are six reasons why middle-class buyers dream of Muswell Hill: Fortismere School (outstanding), Alexandra Park School (outstanding), Muswell Hill Primary (outstanding), Rhodes Avenue (outstanding), Coldfall Primary (outstanding: according to Ofsted, pupils are “impeccably behaved” and “love coming to school”). Oh, and if all else fails, Tetherdown primary (good).

The sacrifice for a high-quality free education is the lack of a Tube station, but 5-10 minutes on a bus to Highgate or East Finchley is a price worth paying — as is the £1.6m for a four-bedroom terrace in a catchment area. That buys you access to green space (Highgate Woods, Queen’s Wood, Fortis Green, Alexandra Park), must-have independent shops, including a fishmonger and a French bakery, and acceptable chains such as M&S and Waitrose. The other sacrifice? Period snobs will have to make do with mostly red-brick Edwardian, rather than listed Georgian or early Victorian, but that’s quibbling.

Average area price £806,381 ▲ 10.1%; zoopla.co.uk/market/muswell-hill
Why we love it Education, education, education, with beauty as well as brains.

34 London, Peckham

The rise of Peckham as a middle-class address illustrates the relentlessness of gentrification in the capital. A decade ago, this southeastern manor was synonymous with Only Fools and Horses and murderous council estates. Now it’s taken over from Dalston as the heart of London’s creative zeitgeist, according to the youth-culture bible Dazed and Confused — the proximity of Goldsmiths and Camberwell art schools has helped. The cool kids drink at Frank’s Cafe, a summer pop-up bar on the roof of a multistorey car park, or dance at South London Soul Train, a club night in the Bussey Building, a cricket-bat factory turned arts venue.

The chattering classes are leaving Clapham for SE15’s cheaper Georgian and Victorian terraces, green space (Peckham Common), transport links (trains to London Bridge and the City, Overground to Shoreditch) and villagey enclaves (the Bellenden Road area, with bollards by Antony Gormley, the Review bookshop, a chocolatier and the General Store deli). Rye Lane keeps it all real, with a grittier ambience; terraces north of Peckham Road go for 15% less than in des-res Peckham Rye, where a Georgian semi in the Holly Grove conservation area is selling for £1.5m.

Average area price £442,124 ▲ 8.63%; zoopla.co.uk/market/peckham
Why we love it From criminal underworld to creative hub, it’s a Cinderella story.

35 London, South Bank

Who’d want to live on the South Bank, that brutalist car park? Plenty of people apparently. Prices are on the up, and new tower blocks will add 1,000 homes in the next few years. The nexus of high-rise living will be between the Oxo Tower and Tate Modern: marquee schemes include 20 Blackfriars Road; One Blackfriars; Ludgate and Sampson House; the South Bank Tower, in the old King’s Reach/IPC tower; and the Doon Street tower, behind the National Theatre. Richard Rogers’s Neo Bankside is already completed, with two-bedders starting at £1.25m.

So clearly the South Bank has a lot going for it. Brutalism is back in fashion — although the new skyscrapers will form a glass jungle, rather than a concrete one — and there is no more convenient address. For culture, the National Theatre, the BFI’s cinemas, the Globe, the Royal Festival Hall and Vics Old and Young are right there. Waterloo station will take you pretty much anywhere, but you can walk to the City, Westminster or Soho — soon across Thomas Heatherwick’s Garden Bridge, scheduled to open in 2018. “There are also many good, and perhaps more affordable, opportunities in the hinterland, particularly around Lambeth North Tube station,” says Shaun Andrews, head of London strategy for the developer GL Hearn. “We could well see a number of large government buildings being freed up and developed in the near future.”

Average area price £818,765 ▲ 6.55%; zoopla.co.uk/market/london/south-bank
Why we love it The future of London’s growth is upwards, and these castles in the sky have glorious river views.

36 London, Walthamstow

It may have an East End postcode (E17), but this area has never had the rough-diamond appeal of Hackney — until now. Last year, property prices there showed the second highest climb in the capital. The big advantage over Hackney is the Tube station: it’s 20 minutes to Oxford Circus on the Victoria line. Waltham Forest’s £12m regeneration scheme has smartened up its scruffy streets, from cool shop signs to artists’ murals on buildings; the William Morris Gallery and Park were given a £5m facelift in 2012. Nearby, a new Swedish cafe, Bygga Bo, sells baby clothes and body lotion to the Bugaboo crowd.

The most coveted address, however, is Walthamstow Village, a conservation area with a whiff of the Cotswolds: it has a 12th-century church, St Mary’s, a Tudor manor house and quaint laneways. Its Spar doubles as an epicurean deli — the Sicilian pizzas and bacon jam are local delicacies. The Wild Card microbrewery, Mother’s Ruin, a boutique gin producer, and God’s Own Junkyard, a lighting gallery, add an artisan feel to the area. A three-bedder here is on the market for £749,000; over, in Walthamstow proper, a five-bedroom terrace is going for £830,000.

Average area price £366,119 ▲ 9.29%; zoopla.co.uk/market/walthamstow
Why we love it It has cheeky cockney charm and a fledgling arts scene, it’s not yet Hackney trendy — and the local council fines people for spitting.

(Getty Images)

37 Manchester, Casstlefield

This inner-city conservation area of canals and cobbles has come a long way since it was named Britain’s first Urban Heritage Park in 1983. A rare green space in the city centre, the park is now a hub for residents of the area’s red-brick warehouses, converted to everything from studio flats to four-bedroom townhouses, and new-build equivalents.

Most residents are city-centre diehards, professionals who walk to their offices in Manchester and are spoilt for choice for after-work entertainment. Culture is on the doorstep in the form of the Museum of Science and Industry, the nearby theatres and outdoor events in the park, which contains traces of a Roman settlement. The monthly artisan market lures foodies and vintage fiends, and there’s high-street shopping a few minutes’ walk away.

Average area price £163,893 ▲ 1.19%; zoopla.co.uk/market/castlefield
Why we love it For centuries of history and 21st-century living.

38 Manchester, Didsbury

Some love the cosmopolitan feel, others the mature trees and attractive architecture in this suburb that calls itself a village, four miles from Manchester city centre. All age groups say it’s the ideal place to live, with a huge selection of apartments and detached family homes on quiet streets off the main roads, where independent shops are a big attraction. Good schools, street festivals and an annual firework display add to the sense of community, and fitness fanatics can get stuck into everything from tennis to t’ai chi, swimming to squash; socialisers may prefer to bypass all that en route to the cafes, bars and restaurants.

Residents value the ability to “turn up and travel”, using the regular Metrolink trams, buses and trains; when you want to spread your wings, the airport is only five miles away. A contributor to the Didsbury Life blog, who’d moved here from London, said the city, “especially Didsbury, is exactly like London. Only better. Nicer. With friendlier faces and cheaper sauvignon blanc.”

Average area price £285,903 ▲ 0.9%; zoopla.co.uk/market/didsbury
Why we love it Lively urban village life for all ages.

39 Milton Keynes

MK is a Marmite town, but those in the “love” camp prize its plentiful supply of spacious houses with gardens and garages, masses of green space and tons of ways to entertain the kids. Even the grumpiest teenager can’t say there’s nothing to do: pick from a 10-screen cinema, a new Imax, three theatres, the giant Bowl for open-air concerts, the ice rink or indoor ski and snowboarding at Snozone.

Fresh air? See how long it takes you to explore the thousands of acres of parks, woods, rivers, lakes, or the 150 miles of cycle paths. Milton Keynes also has a shopping centre and a giant Ikea. Enough said. It’s all very American, but MK has done what it set out to do in the 1960s — become a new urban centre in the middle of the country. And we haven’t even mentioned roundabouts.

Average price £249,989 ▲ 5.7%; zoopla.co.uk/market/milton-keynes
Why we love it Entertainment value.

40 Newcastle, Gosforth

Gosforth is a classic affluent suburb: handsome-spired Georgian parish church, Edwardian-era golf course, wide, quiet streets with comfortable interwar houses and a secondary school rated outstanding by Ofsted. Yet only two miles away are the thrumming bars, clubs and arts venues of central Newcastle.

On the best residential roads, between Kenton Avenue and Montagu Avenue, you’ll find homes with large mature gardens, virtually every one sporting a trampoline, and plenty of parking. And food snobs won’t starve here: the local branch of Loch Fyne has tough competition in Adriano’s, a popular Italian prized by locals for its coffee.

Average area price £295,669 ▲ 7.14%; zoopla.co.uk/market/tyne-and-wear/ gosforth
Why we love it It’s the perfect place to bring up the kids.