Gloucester has been named in the top five housing hot spots in Britain.

Asking prices for homes in the city are growing at one of the fastest rates across the nation, according to Rightmove.

Figures released today by the online property portal show on average prices in Gloucester rose 12 per cent, year on year, to £271,591.

Anthony Stick, director of sales and lettings at Belvoir based in Gloucester, said: "It sounds as though Dr. Foster was wrong. Gloucester house prices are still great value due to the location and continued infrastructure upgrades."

Bath topped the table with asking prices rising 15 per cent over the last year, to £558,018. Truro came second with a 14.8 per cent increase to £323,209.

On average the top ten cities saw a growth of 12.6 per cent which outpaces the national asking price growth of 9.9 per cent.

Righmove said one of the reasons behind the significant rise in prices is the mismatch of supply and demand. Over the last year, the number of buyers enquiring to move to many cities has outweighed the homes available.

And it is countryside and coastal cities that are drawing the attention of buyers. The southwest dominates the nation's property hotspots with Gloucester, Bath, Truro and Plymouth all making the list. But the number of properties available in those regions has dropped by 39 per cent compared to last year, creating fierce competition in their property markets.

Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property data, said: "In the first stages of the pandemic, we saw the popularity of some major cities like London temporarily drop as more people looked for more space.

"However, for other cities like Bath or Plymouth, which perhaps have easier access to the coast and countryside, we saw demand really soar when the market reopened in 2020. Initially, the supply of homes available kept up with some of this surge in demand, steadying asking prices.

"Now, we're still seeing really high buyer demand for cities like Bath, Plymouth and Truro, but the number of new homes coming onto the market hasn't been able to keep up with the buyers enquiring, which has led to asking prices accelerating over the last year."

Punchline says: "This Is the first time this year that Bath has appeared above Gloucester in a league table."