New research from Hammonds Furniture has revealed that Brits looking to move to a picturesque location in the UK should expect to pay as much as 70% over the UK average house price..
With remote working remaining popular, Brits have more freedom in choosing where to live - enabling many to pick a house location for its beauty, rather than its distance to the office. However, homes with a view come at a high cost, and those looking to move to a picturesque area should expect to pay as much as 70% over the UK average house price, according to a new study by Hammonds Furniture.
The research found that homes in the nation’s most beautiful locations have an average sale price of £471,8602, which is almost £200k more than the UK average house price of £276,7553.Hammonds combined Instagram data with a survey of 2,000 UK adults, curating a list of the 125 most picturesque places in the UK4.
They then compared average local house prices for each location to that of their respective county, before awarding each place an ‘affordability’ score out of 1005. When looking at the most affordable and beautiful places to move to, the seaside town of Margate in Kent took the top spot, with Dover in Kent; and the tourist village of Portmeirion in Gwynedd, Wales, placing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Top ten most affordable picturesque places to buy a home in the UK
Margate, Kent scored an impressive 90 out of 100 points, with local houses being 26% cheaper on average than homes across Kent as a whole.
The town, known for its beautiful sandy beaches, has also been tagged on Instagram 959,000 times (via hashtags), making it one of the most photographed locations in the research. The average house in Margate will currently set you back £286,716, and while this is £10k over the average UK house price, Margate offers scenery at a more affordable price point than some other nearby towns.
Overall, Kent dominated the top ten, with Margate, Dover and Canterbury all named in the list of the most picturesque but affordable places to live in the UK.
For anyone looking to relocate to the Southeast, then homes in Dover were also revealed to offer good value for money in a beautiful location, with the average house price here coming in at £112k (29%) below the average in Kent. This price difference secured the famous coastal town second place in the ten top table.
In fact, those wishing to head to the seaside every day are in luck, as five of the most affordable picturesque places are seaside towns - Margate, Dover, Whitby, Weymouth, and Barmouth all offer sandy beaches, sea views and lower-than-average house prices in their regions.
The area of Gwynedd in Wales also featured several times in the list, with Portmeirion and Barmouth both making the cut. Homes near Portmeirion, Wales cost £172,875 on average, which is more than £100k less than the UK average, making it a strong choice for those looking to relocate somewhere beautiful on a budget.
For those looking for somewhere particularly ‘Instagrammable’, the famous seaside town of Whitby, which placed 4th in the list, was the most photographed destination in the top ten. It has been tagged in Instagram posts an impressive 1.2 million times!
This was closely followed by Canterbury in Kent, which boasts 1.1 million tagged photos.
Top 10 least affordable picturesque places to buy a home in the UK
The least affordable picturesque place to buy a home was Snowshill in Gloucestershire, which was made famous by the Bridget Jones films. The stunning Cotswolds village, just two hours from London, scored just 7 out of a possible 100 points in this research, however.
While considered very beautiful - with 15k pictures of Snowshills posted on Instagram - local house prices here are a whopping 148% more than the Gloucestershire average, at £867,500.
Despite Cornwall being deemed by far the most picturesque place in the UK by those surveyed, with a fifth (21%) naming it in the poll of the most beautiful locations, none of Cornwall’s popular towns and villages made the top ten most affordable list.
Both Helford and St Mawes did make the top ten least affordable list though, showing that while the tourist hotspot may be beautiful, those wishing to relocate here should expect to pay over-the-odds. St Mawes had the highest house price in the list - on average, a home in this small fishing village will set Brits back a whopping £1,163,636. This is 255% more than the average Cornish home and 176% more than the UK average.
While Cornwall dominated as Brits’ favourite pretty place in Hammonds’ survey by a ‘country mile’, the Lake District was the second favourite with 13% of the votes, and Scotland came in third with 8%.
Kirsty Oakes, Head of Product and Marketing at Hammonds Furniture, added: “Brits are now freer than ever to up sticks and move somewhere new and exciting, with remote working untethering many from their offices and city centre commutes.
The UK offers so many gorgeous places to visit or move to, and we hope our research has helped unearth some hidden gem locations that many may have overlooked so far in their property hunt. This ranking should hopefully provide people with some inspiration for gorgeous and affordable places to move to, or if nothing else, help them extend their UK travel wish list!”
Main Image provided courtesy of Paul Gillett
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