Moving from London to get more space for your money in the Home Counties is a well-trodden path. However, high property prices mean that this year, for the first time, over half of people leaving the capital moved beyond its surrounding counties.
A decade ago, 40% of people selling a home in the capital moved further than the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent and Surrey, while one in four first-time buyers leaving London to get on the property ladder moved beyond them.
These figures have been creeping up ever since and so far this year, a record 52% of movers and 42% of first-time buyers leaving London bought a home beyond the Home Counties.
Much of this is down to property prices: home values in the Home Counties have risen by an average of 41% since 2014, compared to 31% growth in Greater London. This means Londoners’ equity doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.
A decade ago, the average property in the Home Counties cost 37% less than one in London, whereas that figure has shrunk to 32% today. On average, Londoners can still make more savings by selling a flat in London and buying a house in the Home Counties but the savings have shrunk – from £86,720 in 2014 to just £29,990 now.
This has pushed more Londoners beyond the pricier neighbourhoods on the capital’s doorstep into cheaper areas. There are also likely to be some lingering post-pandemic effects at play here, with generally higher rates of home working compared to before Covid meaning some buyers can move further afield because they don’t have to commute into the capital every day.
Some London leavers are looking at the 1960s generation of new towns beyond the Home Counties greenbelt – their futuristic architecture is coming back into fashion and corporate appetite for suburban business parks has also strengthened post-pandemic. The biggest advantage, however, is that these locations offer lower than average house prices, which means mortgaged homeowners can get more space – often to start or grow a family – even at higher mortgage interest rates.
When it comes to the local authorities recording the largest increase in the number of movers looking to buy from London, all but three of the top 15 are beyond the bounds of the Home Counties. Gedling, in Nottinghamshire, has seen the biggest increase in London movers from the first half of 2023 to the first half of this year with a rise of 159%. The average home in Gedling costs £256,790, almost £435,000 less than the average London home.
Number two location North Somerset has seen more than double (106%) the London buyers this year than in 2023, while Stroud in Gloucestershire has seen a 68% rise.
Apart from the Welsh local authorities Pembrokeshire (79%) and Wrexham (76%), the remaining locations currently attracting buyers are in the wider Southeast and East of England, in counties such as Kent (Swale has seen an 86% uplift in London buyers, while Tonbridge and Malling has seen a 63% rise) and West Sussex (Chichester has witnessed an 83% rise). Fenland in Cambridgeshire and West and Mid Suffolk also feature in the list.
The three Home Counties areas witnessing the biggest uplift in London buyers this year are Epping Forest in Essex (95%), North Hertfordshire (78%) and Reigate and Banstead in Surrey (65%). All are more affordable parts of the London commuter belt compared to other areas. In Epping Forest, for instance, homes average £514,300, which is still more than £177,000 cheaper than the typical London home.
