Why the glamorous ‘footballer belt' is luring Londoners up north

Telegraph

25-06-2025

Kirsty Jairath hadn't expected a move of some 200 miles north from London to be a culture shock.
Coming from the capital, she was used to expensive boutiques full of designer outfits and buzzy bars and restaurants. But, embarking on a shopping trip in her new town, she spotted groups of teenagers gathering to watch what turned out to be a weekly parade of supercars roaring up and down the high street.
'It was like nothing I had seen before, not at all what I was used to,' she says.
Jairath had just moved to the market town of Wilmslow, south of Manchester, and the northernmost point of Cheshire's 'golden triangle' of real estate. It is known for its population of young, wealthy and often ostentatious football players, who splash millions on vast mansions close to their clubs in Manchester or Liverpool.
The golden triangle – the other two points being Alderley Edge and Prestbury – sits within pricey, leafy Cheshire East.
Many of the UK's other high-value real estate locations – including most of central London and the Cornish coast, the Cotswolds, and North Norfolk – have seen prices fall in the past year or two, thanks to higher interest rates and economic and political uncertainty.
Yet, according to the latest UK House Price Index, average sale prices across Cheshire East increased by an impressive 10.7pc in the past year – one of only 25 local authority areas in the UK to have seen double figure price growth. The national average growth was 6.5pc.
Jairath believes part of the reason Cheshire East is thriving is because it is simply a lovely place to live and attracts families from far and wide. 'Wilmslow is so friendly,' she says. 'You can stop anyone in the high street, young or old, and have a chat with them. It is almost like everyone wants to have a nice time.'
It is also a functional market. Prices might be high for the region, but were still affordable enough for Jairath, 32, to buy a family house – something which would have been unthinkable back in London.
In 2019, she and her husband exchanged a rented one-bedroom flat in Stoke Newington, north east London – where they spent £1,400 a month on rent – for their newly built four-bedroom detached house, which cost less than £500,000. The couple now have a three-year-old son.
Jairath's husband, who was brought up in Wilmslow, works in cyber security and was able to transfer his job up north. But in those pre-pandemic days Jairath was told that working remotely was impossible.
She found a new, equally senior job in professional services at the University of Manchester, although the fact that her salary is substantially lower than it was in London rankles.
Compensations include the friendly local community, good schools and large number of kid-friendly events, the regular food festivals and artisanal markets that enliven the town centre, and the gorgeous local countryside. 'I 100pc have no regrets,' she says.
A market of two halves
Just over half of the buyers who come to Andrew Thorpe, head of Savills in Wilmslow, are moving to the area from outside Cheshire – a quarter, like Jairath, from London and the south east. This outsider money flowing into the area may help explain why its market is proving resilient while the Cotswolds et al have foundered.
However, the golden triangle – which counts Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling, and Jordan Henderson among its residents – is not responsible for driving Cheshire East's outperforming growth.
Thorpe said that price growth over the past year in the prime micro-market he serves, where the average buyer spends £1.1m on a home, stands at a more modest 3pc. And even that is not across-the-board growth.
'But if you dissect the market into different price sectors and into urban and rural there are stark contrasts,' says Thorpe. 'The £750,000 to £1.5m is the busiest price bracket, where affluent downsizers and aspirational upsizers meet. And it is an amenity-driven market at the moment, which means that the prime urban market is strong and rural locations are much quieter, and prices are adjusting.'
Meanwhile, district-wide data from estate agent Hamptons shows that the property performance of Cheshire East, which spans 450 square miles, is very much a game of two halves.
Its pleasant and more affordable southern towns are comfortably outperforming the glamorous footballer belt.
The market towns of Sandbach and Nantwich, for example, have both seen annual growth of 11pc, boosting their average sale prices to £289,000 and £327,000 respectively.
In Sandbach, George Rowlands, area sales manager at Northwood estate agents, puts this growth down to lifestyle changes since the pandemic.
Historically, Sandbach was much cheaper than the golden triangle, largely because it is further from the bright lights of Manchester, roughly a 45-minute drive to the north.
'House prices have always been reasonable here because of that,' he explains.
'In the pandemic people went from working in the office to working from home, and they have realised they can come here and get a substantial detached house in a nice town with good schools for a lot less money.'
'My house would be £80k less in Stoke – but it's worth it'
Vanessa Fuller, 38, is in the process of buying a £290,000 three-bedroom house just outside Sandbach, which she will share with her partner Kenny Perry, 45, who works in exhibition construction. Living with them will be Fuller's 15-year-old daughter Lucy, and Perry's 20-month-old son, Oscar.
The family used to live in Stoke-on-Trent, where Fuller, a tax accountant, still runs her own company, Premier Tax Solutions. Some 18 months ago, she rented out her house and the family moved into the southern fringes of Cheshire East.
'We moved partly to be closer to Kenny's older son and because the schools are very good,' explains Fuller. 'It is quite green and the crime rates are low – I allow Lucy to travel by train to the next town and I don't worry about it.'
From her perspective, while it may not have the same cachet or potential for celebrity-spotting as the golden triangle, Sandbach is still an aspirational area.
'The house we are buying would be £80,000 less in Stoke, but for how nice it is here and for the schools and the facilities I still think it is really good value for money.'