Sandbanks in Dorset, Britain’s Mayfair-on-Sea, has once again emerged as the most expensive seaside town in the country.
Home to former Premier League managers and millionaire businessmen, the average price of a home on the glitzy peninsula is now just more than £664,000. Next in price is the sailing hotspot of Salcombe, further along the south coast in Devon, where a house will set you back £618,000.
The data from mortgage lender Halifax showed, however, that the price of a sea view still lags behind the wider UK housing market. House prices in Britain’s seaside towns have jumped by a quarter over the past decade to an average of £227,000 compared with £181,000 in 2007. At a wider national level, however, prices have risen 30% to £266,000.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said coastal towns within commuting distance of London had benefited from the boom in house prices in the south-east.
“Over the past decade, house prices in the south-east – especially coastal towns within commutable distance to London, have shown strong growth and have become Britain’s most expensive seaside towns,” he said.
The bank said that outside southern England, the most expensive seaside areas are the Scottish golfing towns of North Berwick (£314,000) and St Andrews (£300,000). Halifax said that Scottish seaside towns recorded the largest percentage growth. Prices in Fraserburgh, near Aberdeen, almost doubled to more than £136,000 in 2016.
“The strongest performing coastal towns in terms of growth have been north of the border in Scotland, where property prices on the Aberdeenshire coastline have been helped by the oil industry more than the sunshine,” Ellis said.
The residents of the well-heeled Suffolk town of Aldeburgh have enjoyed the greatest real price increase – up from £316,000 in 2007 to £527,000 in 2017.
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland, which was forced to rebuild its beach in 2007 with 500,00 tonnes of imported sand, is named as England’s cheapest seaside town – at £76,000.