Living by the coast draws people of all kinds, attracted to the unique lifestyle, beautiful views and quality of life. The UK’s coastline is diverse and has much to offer the potential buyer, from peaceful sandy beach locations or rugged cliffs to bustling towns and cities. This wide variety of options means demand for property in prime coastal hotspots comes from a mix of sources, with buyers at all stages of their lives.

Larger towns and cities on the coast, such as Brighton, Bournemouth and Plymouth, will attract the widest range of buyers from graduates and young families drawn to the employment opportunities to downsizers looking to combine urban living with life by the sea.

Smaller towns and villages will also attract downsizers, particularly those looking for a lifestyle change. These markets are also popular with second home and holiday homebuyers looking for a bolthole to escape from city life.

Demand from second home and holiday homebuyers has fluctuated in the past decade. Numbers fell following the credit crunch in 2007 and there have only been intermittent spikes since, leading to volatility for house prices in these markets. The announcement in the 2015 Autumn Statement that a higher rate of stamp duty will now apply on “additional properties”, including second homes, is likely to have an impact on some prime coastal markets with high concentrations of second homes.

In the short term, we expect dampened buyer sentiment in a largely discretionary market, with a consequential impact on pricing and transaction volumes, which will present opportunities for committed buyers. Over the longer term we believe transaction volumes will recover once the additional stamp duty is fully priced into the market.

Established Prime vs Emerging Prime

Prime coastal locations

Established Prime: the top locations, by county, with an average sale price above £300k and a premium above the county average of at least 50%.

Emerging Prime: the top locations, by county, with the highest rate of growth above the county average over the last five years with an average sale price over £200k but a premium less than 25% above the county average.

^{Source: Savills Research using Land Registry and Registers of Scotland}

Premium Living

Where can the value be found around the coast?

It is well documented that living by the sea comes at a price and our analysis shows there is a clear premium for proximity to the coast. On average, prices within 100m of the coastline of Great Britain are 11.7% higher than those within 1km, although there is substantial variation between different locations.

England has the most expensive coastline, particularly in the South. In 2015 the coast in the south west of the country had the highest sale price, at an average of nearly £300k. This reflects the very high prices in the long-established prime coastal hotspots of Cornwall and Devon, together with Sandbanks and Canford Cliffs, which have the highest value coastal strip of anywhere in the UK with an average sale price of over £1.1m.

The average premium to live within 100m of the sea in England is 19.4% and, perhaps counter-intuitively, the highest coastal premiums in England occur in the north of the country. Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East have the highest premiums relative to their hinterlands, with properties near the sea selling for an average 53.2% and 37.7% more than those inland.

In Wales, while the average value of homes along the coastline is lower than in England at just over £227k, the premium paid to live within the 100m band around the coast is higher at 23.1%. This is driven by demand for the traditional seaside towns in locations such as Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire or Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan.

In contrast to the rest of Great Britain, on average there is no premium for living by the sea in Scotland due to the remoteness (and therefore relatively low value) of some locations, especially in the North and North West. Despite this, buyers will still pay significant premiums in the golfing and sailing hotspots of North Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute and Fife.

Established And Emerging Coastal Locations