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The posh neighbourhood that is officially the happiest place to live in London in 2026

Rightmove has revealed its Happy at Home Index for 2025 – with two London boroughs ranking among the most joyful in Britain

Amy Houghton
Written by
Amy Houghton
Contributing writer
Richmond, London
Photograph: Shutterstock
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When you live somewhere with glorious green spaces, fantastic food, brilliant cultural institutions and a strong sense of community, you don’t have to go far to find something that’ll lift your mood. London has all of those things in droves. So, it’s only right that a neighbourhood in the capital has just been crowned one of the happiest places in Britain. 

Property platform Rightmove has just unveiled its annual Happy at Home Index for 2025, revealing the parts of Britain where people are the most (and least) happy. The website quizzed thousands of Brits across more than 200 areas about where they live, factoring in things like green spaces, sense of community, safety and access to amenities.

Once againRichmond-upon-Thames emerged as the happiest borough in London, and the second happiest place in the country. Rightmove said that residents of the posh borough rated it highly for its access to nature and essential local services, as well as the offering of shops and restaurants.

Amy Reynolds, head of sales at estate agents Antony Roberts in Richmond, said: ‘Richmond has a rare ability to feel both vibrant and calming at the same time, and I think that balance is a huge part of why people are genuinely happy living here.

‘You’re never far from green space, whether it’s Richmond Park, the towpath, or quiet pockets of nature tucked between neighbourhoods, yet you still have the cafés, independents, and community hubs that give the area its character. There’s a strong sense of connection here too; people don’t just live in Richmond, they participate in it.’

They say that money can’t buy you happiness, but that may not be true in Richmond’s case. The average asking price of a property in the borough is a staggering £942,522 and the average asking rent per month is £3,189. 

A sunny photograph of the River Thames in Richmond, south London
Photograph: cktravels.com / Shutterstock.com

The borough of Camden was London’s second happiest area and the third happiest nationally. The area’s average asking price is an even more, a staggering £1,036,768 – the most expensive place of Britain’s top 10 happiest areas. The average rent there is £3,523 per month.

Overall, Rightmove discovered that people in rural locations were more likely to say that they felt happy where they live than those in urban or suburban places. Skipton in Yorkshire was crowned the happiest area in the country. 

The 10 happiest places to live in London 2025

Here are the capital’s top-ranking boroughs in the 2025 Happy at Home Index.

  1. Richmond-upon-Thames
  2. Camden
  3. Wandsworth
  4. Merton
  5. Southwark
  6. Kingston-upon-Thames 
  7. Islington
  8. Kensington and Chelsea
  9. Tower Hamlets 
  10. Bromley 

See which London boroughs were named the most depressing to live in here.

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