Cromer

Cromer still looks like a Victorian seaside resort that never quite got around to becoming anything else — flint and brick terraces, a pier at the end of the high street, gift shops and crab stalls rather than chain coffee outlets. The average age here is pushing 56, more than a decade above the national median, and that shows in the pace: this is a town built for retirement, second homes and day-trippers rather than for young professionals racing for a train.

Which is worth knowing before you get to the practicalities, because the transport picture is the one obvious soft spot in an otherwise strong set of marks. There are two rail stations — Cromer and Roughton Road — but the town's own connectivity grade sits at a middling C+, and this reads as a place you drive from rather than commute out of daily. Schools are a mixed but not worrying picture: Cromer Junior School holds a Good rating, Cromer Academy takes pupils through to GCSE with a progress8 score around the national average, and the overall schools grade of B+ suggests solid rather than exceptional. Housing is where the numbers genuinely surprise — a median price of £250,000 is both below the national average and nearly 10% cheaper than the wider North Norfolk district, and the market here has been flat rather than rising over the past year. The mix on the street is telling too: terraced houses and flats sell in roughly equal numbers, freehold dominates over leasehold, and there's been no new-build activity at all in the recent sales sample — this is an established town, not a growing one.