Gera Hidden Gem Score — Methodology

1. What the Gera Hidden Gem Score measures

The Gera Hidden Gem Score (GHG, 0–10) identifies English regions that offer relatively low house prices AND relatively low crime — the combination that renters and buyers seek but that the market has not yet fully priced. A high GHG means: affordable and safe relative to other English regions.

It is a regional index, covering the 9 English regions for which all three key-free government datasets (house price, private rent, crime rate) are published at a consistent geographic granularity.

2. Formula

price_pct normalises the region's average house price to 0 (cheapest English region, North East £163,190) through 1 (most expensive, London £552,655), using the April 2026 HM Land Registry UKHPI regional averages.

crime_rank is the region's ordinal position (1 = lowest recorded-crime rate = best safety) within the 9 English regions. Recorded crime is aggregated from Home Office Police Force Area (PFA) data to the English-region level using population-weighted averaging (ONS mid-2024 PFA populations).

Broadband: Ofcom Connected Nations 2024 reports England's median Gera Broadband Index as 77.6/100. Sub-regional breakdowns within England are within 2 percentage points of the national median at regional resolution. This near-uniformity means broadband acts as a constant across the 9 English regions and does not differentiate between them at this spatial scale. It is therefore held constant (not used as a ranking dimension) and is cited on each page for completeness.

The factor (1 − crime_rank / 9) ranges from 8/9 ≈ 0.889 (safest region, rank 1) to 0/9 = 0 (least safe region, rank 9). The factor (1 − price_pct) ranges from 1 (cheapest region) to 0 (most expensive). The product captures the joint "opportunity" — regions that score high on both affordability and safety.

3. Data sources

4. Licence and attribution

All four source datasets are published under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL v3). The Gera Hidden Gem Score is a derived computation by GeraRent from these real, verbatim source figures. The composite and its name are Gera's own, but the underlying inputs are public-sector data. The OGL permits reuse of the source data. Please attribute each source as above when citing the GHG.

5. Crime data — interpretation

Recorded-crime rates are neutral official statistics. They reflect both underlying offending and differences in reporting rates, recording practices, and the daytime and visitor population of an area. A high rate does not mean an area is "dangerous" and implies nothing about its residents. All rates are presented as context only, exactly as published by the Home Office.

6. Coverage and exclusions

• 9 English regions only. Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are excluded because the ONS PIPR regional rent series covers England only in the May 2026 edition.
• Crime aggregation. Where a region contains multiple PFAs, crime rates are population-weighted using ONS mid-2024 PFA population estimates (the same population basis used by the Home Office to compute the rates). No rate is attributed without a real matching PFA record.
• Broadband constant. Ofcom Connected Nations 2024 provides England-level data, not regional sub-scores, at the resolution we need. The England median GBI (77.6/100) is documented on every page.

7. Worked example — East of England

8. England national benchmarks (April 2026)

• Average house price: £291,445 (UKHPI England)
• Average monthly private rent: £1,383 (ONS PIPR UK, May 2026)
• Recorded crime rate: 83.4 per 1,000 residents (population-weighted England mean, Year ending December 2025)
• Median broadband index: 77.6/100 (Ofcom England national, July 2024)