Best areas to open hair & beauty salon in South East
61 South East local authorities ranked by the Gera Business Location Score — real rent, wages, rates and market density.
Where is the best place to open a hair or beauty salon in South East?
In South East, the best area to open a hair or beauty salon is Rother, with a Gera Business Location Score of 62.1/100: premises at £88/m²/yr and local median pay £27,732. Reading ranks lowest of 61 South East authorities at 36.6/100. From 2025 UK government open data; re-dated annually.
Gera Business Location Score
Top South East area for hair & beauty salon: Rother.
How this is calculatedSouth East ranked for hair & beauty salon
| # | Local authority | GBLS | Rent (£/m²/yr) | Local pay | Rates / 100 m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rother | 62.1/100 | £88 | £27,732 | £3,802 |
| 2 | Isle of Wight | 62/100 | £95 | £26,185 | £4,104 |
| 3 | Hastings | 61.7/100 | £79 | £29,383 | £3,413 |
| 4 | Thanet | 61.3/100 | £96 | £27,076 | £4,147 |
| 5 | Eastbourne | 59.9/100 | £111 | £26,893 | £4,795 |
| 6 | Worthing | 59.6/100 | £102 | £29,044 | £4,406 |
| 7 | East Hampshire | 59.5/100 | £101 | £30,143 | £4,363 |
| 8 | Gosport | 59.2/100 | £93 | £30,518 | £4,018 |
| 9 | Wealden | 59.1/100 | £118 | £27,639 | £5,098 |
| 10 | Folkestone and Hythe | 58.6/100 | £95 | £31,907 | £4,104 |
| 11 | Arun | 58.5/100 | £119 | £27,461 | £5,141 |
| 12 | Havant | 58.2/100 | £106 | £30,573 | £4,579 |
| 13 | Ashford | 57.7/100 | £118 | £29,118 | £5,098 |
| 14 | Dover | 57.6/100 | £105 | £31,547 | £4,536 |
| 15 | Chichester | 57.5/100 | £132 | £28,547 | £5,702 |
| 16 | Adur | 57.4/100 | £127 | £28,238 | £5,486 |
| 17 | New Forest | 56.8/100 | £128 | £30,071 | £5,530 |
| 18 | Fareham | 56.7/100 | £112 | £32,895 | £4,838 |
| 19 | Test Valley | 56.5/100 | £108 | £33,566 | £4,666 |
| 20 | Rushmoor | 56.1/100 | £105 | £34,238 | £4,536 |
| 21 | Canterbury | 55.6/100 | £138 | £29,337 | £5,962 |
| 22 | Sevenoaks | 55.6/100 | £147 | £28,537 | £6,350 |
| 23 | Hart | 55.3/100 | £134 | £30,973 | £5,789 |
| 24 | Eastleigh | 55.2/100 | £112 | £35,362 | £4,838 |
| 25 | Portsmouth | 55.1/100 | £121 | £33,015 | £5,227 |
| 26 | Tandridge | 55/100 | £148 | £29,925 | £6,394 |
| 27 | Medway | 54.6/100 | £135 | £30,784 | £5,832 |
| 28 | Southampton | 54.6/100 | £119 | £33,878 | £5,141 |
| 29 | Swale | 54.5/100 | £140 | £29,831 | £6,048 |
| 30 | Cherwell | 54.5/100 | £129 | £33,207 | £5,573 |
| 31 | Mid Sussex | 53.9/100 | £147 | £31,401 | £6,350 |
| 32 | Basingstoke and Deane | 53.4/100 | £126 | £35,492 | £5,443 |
| 33 | Waverley | 52.9/100 | £166 | £31,083 | £7,171 |
| 34 | Tunbridge Wells | 52.7/100 | £164 | £30,296 | £7,085 |
| 35 | Vale of White Horse | 52.7/100 | £124 | £38,134 | £5,357 |
| 36 | Lewes | 52.6/100 | £157 | £32,287 | £6,782 |
| 37 | Gravesham | 52.2/100 | £142 | £34,455 | £6,134 |
| 38 | Horsham | 51.9/100 | £163 | £32,334 | £7,042 |
| 39 | Tonbridge and Malling | 51.4/100 | £167 | £31,472 | £7,214 |
| 40 | Buckinghamshire | 51.3/100 | £164 | £33,367 | £7,085 |
| 41 | West Oxfordshire | 51.3/100 | £161 | £34,006 | £6,955 |
| 42 | Maidstone | 50.3/100 | £173 | £31,986 | £7,474 |
| 43 | Dartford | 50.2/100 | £169 | £32,428 | £7,301 |
| 44 | South Oxfordshire | 48.7/100 | £175 | £36,315 | £7,560 |
| 45 | Bracknell Forest | 48.6/100 | £163 | £37,063 | £7,042 |
| 46 | West Berkshire | 48.3/100 | £182 | £35,806 | £7,862 |
| 47 | Runnymede | 48.1/100 | £158 | £40,000 | £6,826 |
| 48 | Winchester | 47.9/100 | £190 | £34,568 | £8,208 |
| 49 | Brighton and Hove | 47.8/100 | £198 | £33,649 | £8,554 |
| 50 | Crawley | 47.5/100 | £175 | £36,053 | £7,560 |
| 51 | Surrey Heath | 47/100 | £189 | £36,632 | £8,165 |
| 52 | Woking | 46.9/100 | £194 | £35,258 | £8,381 |
| 53 | Milton Keynes | 46.3/100 | £189 | £36,521 | £8,165 |
| 54 | Mole Valley | 46.1/100 | £186 | £39,893 | £8,035 |
| 55 | Wokingham | 45.7/100 | £184 | £38,552 | £7,949 |
| 56 | Slough | 45.3/100 | £184 | £38,578 | £7,949 |
| 57 | Guildford | 43.5/100 | £213 | £38,027 | £9,202 |
| 58 | Windsor and Maidenhead | 42.4/100 | £246 | £34,570 | £10,627 |
| 59 | Oxford | 40.5/100 | £231 | £38,779 | £9,979 |
| 60 | Reigate and Banstead | 40.2/100 | £238 | £39,073 | £10,282 |
| 61 | Reading | 36.6/100 | £245 | £44,956 | £10,584 |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the cheapest area for hair & beauty salon premises in South East?
- The lowest VOA rateable value for this property type in South East is £79/m²/yr in Hastings. On the combined Gera Business Location Score, which also weighs wages and demand, Rother ranks #1.
- How much are business rates for hair & beauty salon in Rother?
- For a 100 m² unit in Rother, business rates are roughly £3,802/yr at the 2026-27 small-business multiplier (43.2p), on top of about £8,800/yr rent — before Small Business Rate Relief.
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Contains public sector information published by Valuation Office Agency and Office for National Statistics and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: VOA Business Floorspace + ONS Business Counts + ONS ASHE (work geography) + ONS population estimates (2025 (VOA 31 March 2025; ASHE 2025 provisional; Business Counts 2025; population mid-2024), published December 2025).