More and more Londoners are buying homes away from the capital to get better use out of their money.
The average person moving out of town between January and June bought a home a record 39 miles away, broker Hamptons International reports. That’s six miles more than in 2019 and 65% further than a typical first-time homebuyer travels.
“Four years into the pandemic, many City workers have settled into a new normal in terms of commuting to the office,” said Anisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons. “To further increase their equity, movers continue to make long-distance moves outside of the capital.”
U.K. households are facing cost pressures due to higher interest rates and a declining cost of living. While home loan rates continue to fall from 15-year highs set for 2023, the number of properties mortgaged in the U.K. increased by 8% in the second quarter of this year.
More than 25% of households selling a London home outside the capital moved more than 100 miles away in the first half, up significantly from the 17% average recorded between 2015 and 2019. Hamptons said that, on average, people leaving London are moving 50% further away than they were a decade ago, with higher transaction costs reducing the number of more frequent moves in a shorter period of time.
Gedling and North Somerset – two local authorities located in the Midlands and western England respectively – have seen the number of people looking to leave London in the first half of 2024 more than double compared to the same period last year. Those leaving London accounted for 48% of people buying homes outside the capital between January and June.
Still, the long-standing surge of first-time buyers leaving London was limited in the first half of the year, as a steady decline in mortgage costs and low house prices encouraged more prospective homeowners to buy in the capital. First-time buyers bought a record 48% of homes sold in London between January and June, up from 41% in 2023 and 28% a decade ago, the report said.
In addition, first-time buyers leaving the capital are looking for more affordable areas closer to London, rather than moving further away. The share of first-time buyers leaving London for the countryside has halved from its peak of 6% in 2020.
“Lower mortgage payments have made the cost of buying a home lower than renting, which has provided a welcome relief to those buying their first home in the capital,” said Hamptons’ Beveridge. “First-time home buyers with more money are looking at London again, choosing Clapham over Crawley and Wembley over Wycombe.”
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