Wigan has some of the least nosy neighbours in the UK

For Wiganers are apparently among the least curious people in the country when it comes to other people’s business.

While Reading tops the table as being home to Britain’s nosiest neighbours, our borough figures in the nation’s bottom 10.

Zoopla took the findings from searches made on its website to find which residents check out how much their neighbours’ homes are worth.

Compiled by examining how many times visitors to the website used its property estimates tool to get an instant valuation on a property they lived near to, the website’s “nosy neighbours” index compared 50 of Britain’s biggest urban areas against an average national nosiness score of 100.

The searches included in the research were made by people who identified themselves as being a neighbour when making the search.

Residents of Reading topped the table, with a score of 189.1 - nearly double the national average. Property prices there, by the way are £418,515 and have risen by 4.88 per cent in the last 12 months

Milton Keynes, Cambridge, central London, Swindon, Southampton, Bristol and Brighton also made Zoopla’s nosy neighbours top 10 list.

The research found evidence of a North/South divide, with people in the South seemingly keener than the rest of Britain on keeping up to date with what their neighbours’ homes are worth, perhaps motivated by strong price rises in their areas.

Middlesbrough, Hull, Liverpool, Barnsley, Dundee and Glasgow were identified as being among the areas with the least nosy neighbours.

And Wigan appeared 10th from bottom of the list with a score of 64.9.

The average house price in the borough is a far more affordable £149,895, and in fact prices have actually dropped by 2.67 per cent in the last year.

On a regional level, London appears to be the nosiest overall area, followed by the South East and East Anglia.

People living across Wales and Scotland were less likely than average to check out what their neighbours’ homes are worth, with nosiness scores of 62.5 and 54.9 respectively.

Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said people living in Reading “have their finger very firmly on the pulse when it comes to knowing their local market”.

Wigan was recently identified as one of the best first-time buyer spots in the country because of the reasonable price of its flats and houses to buy and rent.