Fermanagh and Omagh district scores highly for life satisfaction

The results come from gold payment platform, Glint, after extensive research on the best and worst places to buy a house in the UK.

The company collected data around average salary, average house price, crime rates and life satisfaction scores, to create an index to rank areas of the UK from the best to worst places to buy a house.

Fermanagh and Omagh were scored 7.8 out of 10 in life satisfaction and 83 in the ranking created by Glint.

Also scoring 7.8/10 in Life Satisfaction, yet just behind by one point in the overall Home Buying Score, Mid Ulster was the second happiest and best place to live in Northern Ireland.

The Lisburn and Castlereagh area has the highest average salary out of the top happiest places to live.

According to the rankings, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon offered the most house for your money, having the lowest average price per square foot in the country. Plus, the area scored 7.6/10 in Life Satisfaction - featuring in the top 10 happiest places to live.

A spokesperson for Glint explained the thought behind the research “It’s no secret that house prices vary wildly across the UK. The price of a studio flat in London could get you a four-bed detached in other parts of the country,” they said.

“For buyers, these value disparities are a major decider in where they choose to put down roots. Because when you can get triple the bricks and mortar for your money a few miles down the road, you might second-guess your priorities.

“To find out the best and worst places to buy a house, we compared house price per square foot against other lifestyle factors in each area of the UK to reveal the best places to buy a house in overall.

“Weighing price per square foot against average salary, crime rate and life satisfaction, we assigned each area a House Buying Score (/100 points) to produce full rankings for the best places to buy in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.”

Under the banner of ‘happiness’ behind Fermanagh and Omagh were Newry, Mourne and Down, Lisburn and Castlereagh, and Causeway Coast and Glens.

In addition, Fermanagh and Omagh, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon were in the top 10 across the UK for house price versus size with all averaging just over £130 per square foot.

Belfast, Mid and East Antrim and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon all ranked in the top 10 in terms of affordability, which compared average house price with average salary.

Not surprisingly there were no Northern Ireland council areas featured in the least affordable places to live, which were dominated by English council areas, with house prices ranging from £469,804 in Oxfordshire through to £641,027 in Surrey.

Glint used data from Zoopla, the NI Price Index, Open Data Communities, PlumPlot, Payscale, Crime Rate UK, ONS and Statista to create their rankings.

Glint is a system allowing customers to make transactions based on gold they have purchased.