Nearly 100,000 people moved home in the last two years in order to get away from their neighbours, according to Abbey Mortgages.

Council of Mortgage Lender figures show that some 680,000 homeowners who have a mortgage, moved in the last two years. The most common reasons being the desire to get higher up the ‘housing ladder’ (around 30%) and the need for more room (20% of home movers).

Almost 217,000 people were motivated to move in order to climb up the property ladder, 102,000 to downsize and 108,000 because they had found their dream home.

But over 40,800 people were motivated to move in order to get into their preferred school’s catchment area. Redundancy and financial difficulties pushed 6800 into selling up and moving to a cheaper abode.

Abbey Mortgages’ survey also found that 7% of all homeowners are actively looking to move, more than a third of these people said they were being motivated by necessity rather than choice.

Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, director of Abbey Mortgages, said: “The saying ‘love thy neighbour’ seems long forgotten as so many of us plan to move each year just to get away from those next door.