More People Moving Out of London Due to House Prices

13

January 2016

More People Moving Out of London Due to House Prices

The year 2015 saw the amount of homeowners in London, who are selling and moving out, go up by nearly 66%. The figures, released on Saturday, showed that many people are deciding to cash in on their assets now and move to cheaper areas in the country.

The amount of homes, which were bought outside of the capital city by Londoners this year, was higher than any point since 2007. Hamptons International, the property company, said that the actual number of properties was around 63,000.

It is thought that around 90% of these individuals bought property in the south of England. However, there was a 165% increase in the amount of Londoners moving to the Midlands. House price growth in the capital has slowed slightly this year but it is still increasing faster than the rest of the country, and in 2014 prices in the area skyrocketed.

The head of research at Hamptons International, Johnny Morris, commented saying:

"As the gap between prices in London and the south-east has grown, so has the temptation for Londoners to cash in on record house prices and move out of the capital,"

"With expectations of future house price growth in London easing, many have chosen 2015 to make their move out of London."

According to the Office for National Statistics, high prices in the capital are also forcing many first-time buyers to move away to other parts of the country. The average cost of a home in London is now £500,000.

The research carried out by Hamptons is based on data from Countrywide, the biggest estate agency in the UK. It revealed that there had been an increase of 70% in the number of people who were leaving the capital to buy their first place. This represents an increase of nearly 11,000 people on the figure for 2014.

Nationwide also released information regarding the affordability of homes in London for first-time buyers. This Figure is currently sitting at a record high of the average price being 9.6 times the level of the average wage.

Morris went on to say:

"Affordability in London is more constrained than ever, so many who want to buy their first home are considering less expensive areas in the commuter belt."

"We will see more Londoners leaving the capital in 2016, many prepared to move further afield in search of value for money."

This move to places just outside London has already increased the price of houses in the south-east of England and has made East Anglia more popular than it had been previously. Rics (The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) said that the east Midlands, East Anglia and the south-east may actually be leading the way in terms of property price growth around the country- it has predicted a 8% increase in property prices in East Anglia next year.

The research by Hamptons said that the people moving from London spent around £24bn on the new homes that they purchased. This is still not as high as it was back in 2007; that year saw £32bn worth of property purchased and 100,000 people move away from the capital.