City dwellers are looking to buy homes on the coast, pushing up prices and quickening the pace of property sales, according to Rightmove.
Its research suggests that the number of urbanites searching for homes in coastal locations has more than doubled compared with before the pandemic. That, in turn, has heated up the market, with the asking price for a home by the sea rising by 7 per cent since 2019, outpacing the 5 per cent average for cities, and with homes in coastal areas changing hands in an average of 51 days, compared with 71 days before the pandemic.
The property search website analysed 120 coastal areas around Britain. It found that the number of buyers living in cities sending enquiries to estate agents about homes in coastal locations had risen by 115 per cent. This compared with a 36 per cent increase in enquiries from people wanting to move in the opposite direction.
The average cost of a coastal home increased from £255,075 in 2019 to £272,165 today, while an average city property rose from £372,878 to £393,013.
Helensburgh in Dunbartonshire, at 27 per cent, Padstow in Cornwall, at 24 per cent, and Gourock in Renfrewshire, at 21 per cent, showed the steepest rises.
Advertisement
“The surge of people enquiring about locations outside cities before the pandemic has transitioned into a more medium-term shift in behaviour,” Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, said.
