More Londoners are buying homes farther away from the capital
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The average person moving from the city bought a home a record 63km outside the city between January and June.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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LONDON – More and more Londoners are purchasing homes farther away from the British capital in a bid to get better bang for their buck.
The average person moving from the city bought a home a record 63km outside it between January and June, according to a report from broker Hamptons International. That is about 10km farther than in 2019 and 65 per cent more than the typical first-time buyer.
“Four years on from the pandemic and many city workers have settled into a new normal when it comes to going into the office,” said Ms Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons. “In a bid to make their equity stretch further, movers continue to make longer distance moves out of the capital.”
British households are facing a mix of cost pressures triggered by higher interest rates and a cost-of-living squeeze. While home loan rates are steadily declining from the 15-year high they reached in 2023, the number of British mortgaged properties taken into possession rose 8 per cent in the second quarter of 2024.
Over 25 per cent of households trading a London home for one outside the capital moved more than 160km away in the first half of 2024, significantly higher than the 17 per cent average recorded between 2015 and 2019.
On average, London leavers are moving 50 per cent farther than they were a decade ago, with high transaction costs reducing the number of shorter, more frequent moves, Hamptons said.
Still, a long-running rise in the number of first-time buyers leaving London was restricted in the first half of 2024, as a steady decline in mortgage costs and lower house prices encouraged more prospective home owners to buy in the capital.
First-time buyers purchased a record 48 per cent of homes sold in London between January and June, up from 41 per cent in 2023 and 28 per cent a decade ago, the report said.
What is more, first-time buyers leaving the capital are increasingly seeking out more affordable areas closer to London rather than moving farther afar. The share of first-time buyers leaving London for the countryside has halved from its 6 per cent peak in 2020.
“Lower mortgage payments have pulled the cost of buying back below renting, bringing relief to those looking for their first home in the capital,” Ms Beveridge said. “First-time buyers with deeper pockets are looking again at London, choosing Clapham over Crawley and Wembley over Wycombe.” BLOOMBERG
