‘Traditional’ retirement locations now attracting younger buyers as rising house prices push people further afield
November 21, 2016- Rising house prices push older buyers out, as traditional seaside ‘retirement’ towns attract younger buyers
- Seaside home buyers now average in their mid-40s*, c. five years younger than their 2012 counterparts
- Seaside towns become popular with relocators from Greater London, as the capital’s property prices rise by 44.9% in four years
The average age of home buyers relocating to the seaside towns has fallen by around five years, as property prices increased significantly between 2012 and 2015, research by My Home Move, the UK’s leading provider of mover conveyancing services, has found.
Of the twelve seaside locations found to be the most popular relocation destinations for Britain’s home movers, according to My Home Move’s records*, all saw property prices increase over the four year period.
In correlation, the ages of the relocation home buyers decreased across nearly all of the places analysed; with Poole in Dorset now attracting the youngest buyers at an average age of 46, while property prices there have increased by 23.8% (£65,000) since 2012.
Commenting on these findings, Doug Crawford said, “Earlier this year we undertook a piece of research to understand where people were relocating to and from – discovering that 22% of all relocators from London chose new homes by the sea.
“With house prices in the capital rising by nearly 45% since 2012, and commuter links from places like Margate, Eastbourne and Bognor Regis taking around an hour and half, it makes sense that for those looking for a better work-life balance, many would make the move to be by the sea.
“However, the flipside of this is that while the towns we looked at are affordable for city workers, for those who are retired or nearing retirement age, the chances of affording a home in a traditional seaside town, places that were once popular with retirees, appear to be dwindling.”
The exceptions from the research undertaken were Clacton-on-Sea and Skegness. Both of these towns saw modest increases in property prices, as the average age of people choosing to relocate there rose by 17 and 20 years respectively – suggesting these two seaside towns and in particular Skegness, remain affordable to older home buyers on limited incomes.