WE MAY have had one of the wettest Augusts on record but holiday-home buyers are still willing to pay as much for a small cottage in Cornwall than a luxury villa abroad.
Buyers can get more for their money in parts of the Mediterranean and further afield. A three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse in one of the most glitzy locations in Marbella, Spain, costs €450,000 (£300,000).
The same sum buys a stone villa with a swimming pool in Istria, Croatia, which is fast becoming a favourite destination for property bargain-hunters.
This is at the same time as our enthusiasm for buying on the British coast has pushed up average house prices in Padstow by 144 per cent over three years to just under £270,000.
Despite better value for money abroad, the surge in British seaside property prices shows that for many buyers a house by the English coast offers something that even lower prices and excellent weather cannot beat. They can also drive there for weekend breaks without the tedium of airports and delayed flights.
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Andrew Chilcott, of Lillicrap Chilcott estate agents in Cornwall, said: “It’s the romantic appeal. A lot of people spent their childhood holidays in Cornwall, which has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
“And although it may not always be sunny, the weather is brisk. It makes you feel alive,” Mr Chilcott said.
One of his recent sales was Seagull Barn, a pretty stone-and-slate home in Boscastle. It went under offer for a little less than £235,000 only a few days after the flash floods struck the Cornish village.
Charming period properties in scenic locations are rare and the high demand for something quaint and cosy is fuelling the price rises in Britain’s most attractive coastal towns and villages.
New homes may be springing up all over Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro but the number of 19th-century fishermen’s cottages in a place like Mevagissey is limited.
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Buyers can spend years waiting for the right property to come up.
In smaller seaside villages the best homes are snapped up by buyers with family or friends in the area before the property reaches an estate agent’s window.
Buying property abroad is also often perceived as complicated and risky.
Many choose second homes in Britain to avoid having to deal with a different legal and tax system in a foreign language.
But the gap between the cost of property in Britain and in the more popular resorts in the Mediterranean is closing fast as more Britons buy abroad, pushing up local prices.
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Cheap and regular flights mean it is easier to travel and spend more time in a holiday home overseas.
There is also a growing trend among the self- employed to work from their homes abroad and commute into Britain. Estate agents in Spain say that property prices around Marbella have risen by 250 per cent over the past four years. Ian Cunningham, of the Escapes2 estate agents, said: “Buyers in Spain are spending up to 50 per cent more than they were two to three years ago. The market has shifted. People now want quality homes in good locations rather than the standard two-bedroom apartment.”