Families make staycations permanent as sales of £1m homes in holiday hotspots soar
The staycation boom has tempted some families to permanently up sticks as new figures showed a rise in million-pound home sales in Britain’s most visited areas of the countryside.
The data, from Savills and TwentyCi, showed that an average of 868 £1m-plus sales were agreed each week since the start of June, two-thirds higher than the weekly average of 522 over the same period last year.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said that staycation locations had been “standout performers”, including the Cotswolds, South Oxfordshire, Dorset, Cornwall and Wiltshire.
The pandemic has brought about a trend for buyers to look further afield, prioritising more space in the countryside over urban lifestyles and shorter commuting times.
Mr Cook said: “Whereas [million pound] sales in London rose by 4 per cent in the first nine months of the year, they are up 27 per cent across the rest of the UK, albeit London still accounts for over four in 10 sales with a £1m-plus price tag.
"Lifestyle relocation has been a big theme in the market since lockdown began to ease, and this is very clearly reflected in the numbers.”
Meanwhile Rightmove, the online estate agent, said that asking prices have risen by 1.1 per cent month-on-month, bringing them to a record high average of £323,530. This is 5.5 per cent higher than a year ago, which Rightmove said was the biggest rate of increase in four years.
Tim Bannister, from the firm, said many buyers are prepared to pay for properties that fit their changed post-lockdown priorities, but that there were signs that some sellers were becoming overly optimistic.
