Wrexham

Wrexham reads as a working city rather than a postcard one: terraces and semis running off a compact centre, a market town's bones dressed in the low-rise brick of somewhere that grew steadily rather than boomed. You notice the mix quickly — independent shops holding their ground next to the usual high street names, and a population with a fair number of families and older residents rather than a student or young-professional crush. The median age sits close to the Welsh average, which tells you this isn't a place in the middle of reinventing itself for a particular crowd; it's just getting on with things.

The practical picture holds together well for a city this size. Five stations serve the area, including Wrexham General and Wrexham Central for those heading into town, with Ruabon covering the southern edge — enough choice that a car isn't obligatory even if it's still useful. Schooling is dense rather than showy: 73 schools for the population, with St Joseph's Catholic and Anglican High among the larger secondaries and a run of community primaries like Ysgol Bodhyfryd and Ysgol Yr Hafod giving most streets a walk-in option. Housing is where the case for Wrexham gets clearest: a median price of £190,000 against a Welsh average of £208,000 and a UK-wide figure well above that again, so you're buying into a city that hasn't priced out ordinary buyers. Detached and semi-detached homes dominate the sales here, nearly all freehold, which is the traditional owner-occupier pattern rather than a flat-and-leasehold market — a "For Sale" board here usually means a house with a garden, not a conversion.