The Painswick hotel in its namesake Cotswolds village in Gloucestershire is a good option for staycationing home-hunters
(Picture: Steve Russell Studios Ltd)The pandemic has seen homebuyers reassess their property wish lists and the rise of the TW*T —office-based on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays — has added a couple of notches to the traditional commuter belt as people spread their house hunt further.
With a wider field it can be difficult to know where to start your search, especially if you’re considering brand new areas, but agents and homebuyers who have successfully come out the other side agree that the time and energy you invest in your search does pay off in the end.
One top tip to convince agents that you are a serious prospect for a sale is to take a few days in the middle of the week to stay in and explore the area instead of vying for limited appointments on a Saturday afternoon, says Louis Harding, head of London residential sales at Strutt & Parker.
“By relying on Saturday viewings, you’re not always necessarily going to meet the estate agent that knows the client best,” he explains.
“It’s such a big thing, moving out of London to a more suburban or rural area, it would be silly not to give it the time it requires.”
With the summer holidays coming to an end, there’s no better time to combine your house-hunt with a staycation and get to know what your prospective new area is like on a weekday evening, too.
Kent
Average house price: £391,004
Kent’s sandy beaches, grammar schools and pretty towns are drawing TW*T commuters who previously discounted the coast as too far for the daily slog, pre-Covid. Train journeys from this part of Kent tend to take between 90 minutes and two hours to St Pancras.
Broadstairs and Margate are popular with stylish creatives and young families looking for coastal living within easy(ish) reach of London when needed. Londoners have been beating a steady trail to Margate for the past few years, which has seen the town dubbed Shoreditch-on-Sea.
Digital editor Natalie Wall (@talliwall), is one such London leaver. She bought a four-bedroom Victorian house in Broadstairs with her boyfriend after five years of on-off house-hunting around Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate.
“Whenever we took a seaside break in Thanet, which we did around two to three times a year, we’d arrange at least one day of viewings in whichever area we were staying in and we started to get a feel for the places we’d like to live versus the place that makes for a great night out,” she says. “We stayed in loads of different places, from Airbnb flats right next to the beach to terraced townhouses and hotels.
“We probably viewed around 40 or so properties in total over the five years we were looking. We had offers accepted on three properties over the years but all fell through due to issues on the vendor side.”
Natalie stayed at The Well residence in Margate when she found her new home. “It’s set in a terraced townhouse with a focus on feeling good — ‘filling the well’,” says Wall. We felt so relaxed during our stay there last summer, surrounded by crystals and the like, surely it’s no coincidence we manifested our dream home into lives while there!” Rooms cost £255 a night.
“We also stayed in Belvedere Place, a stunning Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse in Broadstairs. It was doing moody dark decor way before it became an Instagram trend. We got lots of local tips from the then-owner, who I think herself had moved from London, so it certainly opened our eyes to the possibility of doing likewise.” Rooms cost £380 for two nights (minimum stay).
“We saw a lovely townhouse in Ramsgate that we were very close to making an offer on, but something felt off. We ended up going back to the street a few times that same trip and realised the neighbours and surrounding area was pretty… lively, to say the least! Which obviously might have suited some people, but was a red flag for us.”
Wall is now arranging the renovation of her dream home from her one-bedroom flat 100 miles away in Pinner, north-west London.
Meghann Murdock
Surrey
Average house price: £618,884
Picturesque market towns such as Dorking, Reigate and Haslemere. Guildford and Godalming, both set on the River Wey, have the added benefit of waterside living. Epsom’s high street was flagging even pre-pandemic but good pubs and walks on the Downs are a big draw.
Commutes to central London take around an hour, although there are some (inevitably costly) options around the 45-minute mark.
One for a few days of exploring is Denbies Vineyard Hotel in Dorking, with rooms from around £150 on the 265-acre wine estate in the rolling Surrey Hills.
Beaverbrook country house hotel is the showstopper option. In 470 acres, with just 18 rooms that cost from £570 per night, it’s the height of luxury — a 10-minute taxi from Leatherhead station, which offers 45-minute train journeys to Waterloo.
The hotel boasts interiors by Susie Atkinson, who has also worked on Soho House properties, so Londoners considering a move to the Surrey Hills will feel right at home in the grand Victorian mansion once owned by press baron and politician Lord Beaverbrook. The hotel’s Japanese Grill is headed up by sushi expert Wojciech Popow of Yashin and Noma origins.
For those who don’t baulk at the country house room rates, Headley homes are must-views. There’s currently an eight-bedroom manor house for sale for £3.25 million in this upscale area. It’s also well-located for exploring Reigate and under-the-radar options such as Tadworth and Walton-on-the-Hill.
Meghann Murdock
East Sussex
Average house price: £426,667
Pretty Rye, just above Camber Sands, and the market towns of Wadhurst and Ditchling, tap into chocolate-box home cravings. Londoners who don’t want to lose their edge entirely could consider the up-and-coming seaside town of Eastbourne.
With trains taking just over an hour on average, East Sussex offers London leavers a spectacular choice of countryside or coast, from quaint villages to trendy towns.
Capitalising on the London exodus is the newly opened Port Hotel in Eastbourne, which is seeking to reimagine the traditional seaside hotel for creative visitors. Standing out from its neighbours with its east London-on-sea black façade, which locals joke shows up the seagull droppings to best effect, the hotel offers 19 rooms on the Royal Parade.
Even better for those plotting a move, Port sources many of its pared-back furnishings and artworks locally — and lists suppliers and prices in an informative visitors’ guide. Food and wine are also brought in from within 30 miles of the hotel where possible – enjoy Sussex fizz, charcuterie and fish on the seafront terrace if the weather’s good. For house-hunting, Rye is nearby and Lewes is a half-hour drive away.
Owner Peter Cadwallader thinks Eastbourne is set to be the next Margate with a buzzing arts scene and relatively affordable housing tempting ever more Londoners away from the capital. There are plans afoot to open further branches in similarly up-and-coming seaside towns in the near future.
Rooms at Port Hotel cost from £140, on a bed and breakfast basis.
Prudence Ivey
Gloucestershire
Average house price: £352,794
Oxfordshire is the classic Cotswolds county for London commuters and Rightmove searches for properties in the Cotswolds village of Chadlington rose by 511 per cent following the launch of Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime.
New era commuters can look further afield to Gloucestershire. The market town of Cirencester has seen a 161 per cent rise in rental searches, while the Georgian spa town of Cheltenham offers plenty of entertainment for former Londoners.
Trains from London to the boho epicentre of Stroud take an hour and a half from Paddington. The glam surrounding villages are home to celebs including Jamie Dornan and Queen of the Cotswolds, Jilly Cooper.
House-hunters can stay at The Painswick, a 16-room hotel in the archetypal Cotswolds village of the same name. Think roaring fires, snugly sofas and fine dining to set you up for a day of viewings.
Rooms from £194 per night, bed and breakfast.
Prudence Ivey
