The most desirable cities to relocate to in the UK - see where Birmingham ranks and full list

Relocating to a new city can be both an experience of a lifetime and a harrowing, scary moment. Not only do you have to familiarise yourself with a new area, new shops, pubs and parks, but you might also have to find new friends and a new job.

Despite this, thousands of us relocate to a new city every year, and the home insurance team at CompareTheMarket have been looking at the data to find out where most Brits are looking to move. Birmingham came in third on the list of most desirable cities to live with almost 18,000 searches on Google.

The research looked at Google searches relating to homes and moving to different cities like  ‘moving to’, ‘where to live in’, ‘buy house’ and ‘rent house’ between December 2021 and November 2022 to come up with the numbers. The second city landed just behind Manchester with 19,910, and ahead of Liverpool with 20 less searches at 17,960.

Birmingham is home to numerous beloved football teams as well as one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe, so the appeal might not come as a surprise. The multicultural city is also home to several award-winning restaurants as well as famous bands and musicians like Black Sabbath and UB40.

The 10 most desirable cities to relocate to in the UK

1. London - 33,700 searches

2. Manchester - 19,910 searches

3. Birmingham - 17,980 searches

4. Liverpool - 17,960 searches

5. Bradford - 13,130 searches

6. Leeds - 13,050 searches

7. Nottingham - 12,440 searches

8. Sheffield - 11,960 searches

9. Bristol - 11,520 searches

10. Glasgow - 10,780 searches