Yahoo Finance Britons yearn for the seaside with coastal towns tempting buyers
Britain’s city dwellers are keen on a change of scenery to the suburbs and the coast, according to new data from Zoopla.
The property website analysed a year's worth of search data to see where residents of Britain's major cities such as London, Birmingham and Edinburgh were most likely to look for new houses, both within and outside their home towns.
Zoopla found that buyers are most often seeking to move to a more quiet residential area, or else to seaside towns within striking distance of the city.
Residents in almost half of Britain's 10 largest cities searched for homes on the coast, with London's property hunters keenest on Margate, the Kent town best known for its Dreamland amusement park.
Liverpudlians look to Skegness in Lincolnshire and Edinburgh’s most searched-for area is the seaside county of Angus to the east of Dundee. Newcastle dwellers appear to be keen on the coastal town of Peterlee to the south, where house prices average just £97,149.
Meanwhile house hunters in the capital looking to the suburbs are tempted by Wimbledon in the south west, despite the average property price in the area topping £804,500.
In Liverpool, Belle Vale attracted the most search interest from people looking to move closer to home. The neighbourhood, south east of the city centre, boasts an average house price of just £47,588.
Lawrence Hall, of Zoopla, said: “It’s interesting to see how the data indicates that many city-dwellers are keen to escape to the coast. It perhaps comes as little surprise that many people living in Britain’s busiest cities are looking for a slower pace of life.”
