North Wales saw its biggest boost in population in a decade during the pandemic due to people moving to the region from England and south Wales.

While the trends mostly pre-date Covid, housing market experts at Zoopla said the pandemic may have led to a reassessment of where we live, with a search for space leading to more rural areas.

Across North Wales, there were 25,743 moves into or within the area in the year to June 2020, and 21,873 in the opposite direction.

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This meant the local population increased by 3,870 due to people choosing North Wales for a new life.

That was the biggest net increase due to 'internal migration' in a decade.

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In terms of the number of people moving to North Wales, the biggest inflows to the area last year came from:

Cheshire West and Chester: 1,836
Liverpool: 1,715
Manchester: 833
Cardiff: 596
Shropshire: 512

It’s a similar picture for where people in North Wales were most likely to move to:

Cheshire West and Chester: 1,805
Shropshire: 722
Liverpool: 718
Wirral: 438

While more people left Wrexham and Gwynedd than arrived, many other areas saw record net inflows.

Conwy saw 1,464 more people move into the area in the year to June 2020 than leave, the highest number in a decade.

At similar record levels, in Denbighshire, 1,186 more people arrived than left, on Anglesey it was 550, and Flintshire saw 897 more people arrive than leave.

In the year to mid-2020, an estimated 3.2 million people moved between local authorities in the UK.

The impact of the pandemic meant that was a 12% fall compared to 3.7 million moves in the year to mid-2019.

The UK Government issued guidance on March 26 advising people to delay house moves if at all possible during the lockdown period, meaning that some sales that were due to complete in March will not have gone ahead. The Welsh Government issued similar guidance.

As well as this, lockdown rules prevented in-person house viewings.

From May 13, estate agents in England could conduct viewings. In Wales, viewings of empty properties were allowed from June 22, while viewing of occupied properties could restart from July 27.

However, despite the overall fall in the number of people moving, net outflows from major cities were at similar or higher levels to previous years.

In the year to mid-2020, around 101,381 more people left London for elsewhere in the UK than moved in - consistent with the average for the previous three years.

This was because the number of people leaving London dropped by less (8%) than the fall in the number moving in (down 14%).

Cardiff and Swansea also saw their biggest net outflows in a decade.

These trends mostly predate lockdown - as the data covers from June 2019 - but it seems likely they continued, and were possibly boosted, as the pandemic hit.

Gráinne Gilmore, Head of Research at Zoopla comments: "The pandemic, and several lockdowns, led to a once in a lifetime reassessment of home for many who have reviewed how and where they live.

“For some, a requirement for additional space has led them to more rural locations, particularly if they're no longer required to be in the office five days a week. This increase in activity in rural markets, especially when there is a limited number of homes for sale, has put upward pressure on house prices.

“However total levels of buyer demand remain higher in cities and towns, as this is where the majority of homes for sale are located.”

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