Leaving the capital no longer always makes financial sense – by Ruth Bloomfield.
During the course of last year, Alex Greaves and his wife Sarah seriously considered moving out of London. The couple, who live in Southfields in the south-west of the city with their sons aged two and five, were tempted the idea of a new life in the country – inspired largely by friends’ idyllic tales of moving to the sticks and into a home far grander than anything they could possibly afford in the capital.
In the end, though, Alex and Sarah decided to stay put. And they are not alone. In the past year the number of Londoners leaving the city has dwindled dramatically. Research by estate agent Hamptons found that during 2024, Londoners purchased just 5.7 per cent of all homes sold beyond the city limits. This is a decade-long low, and down from a peak of 8.2 per cent in 2022 when Covid-19 was in full swing and people were streaming out of cities all over the western world.
‘Moving out is something that is constantly being discussed at dinner parties,’ says Alex, 40, founder of Ridgestone Property. ‘It is a really interesting dilemma. During Covid we were sitting there enviously looking at people living in the countryside, growing their own food and having beehives and all that.’
But when Alex and Sarah, 37, started looking into the details, they began to have their doubts. Leaving London would mean saying goodbye to their network of local family and friends. Alex would have to commute regularly to the capital, and they would have to turn down the place they had been offered at their primary school of choice and start applying in a new area.
And then there was the matter of cost. Many Londoners persist in the belief that property beyond the M25 is so cheap that they could swap their basement flat in Seven Sisters or Willesden for a dreamy Cotswolds cottage or seaside townhouse. That is no longer the case, says Alex. After looking around, he realised he’d pay about the same money for an easily commutable house close to a nice town in the Home Counties as he’d be able to sell the Southfields property for – and then have to pay the cost of commuting on top. True, the country house might be marginally larger or have a bigger garden, but it wouldn’t cut the mortgage or really improve the family’s quality of life.
He says many of his clients are coming to the same conclusion. ‘It used to be the case that people with London equity could buy something really special for less money,’ he says. ‘In times gone by when London was performing really well you could buy outside for maybe 25 per cent less. Now, especially when you factor in stamp duty, it doesn’t look like a great trade.’
Hamptons thinks that the fightback against working from home has also played a part in the stemming of the London exodus. With workers being summoned to their desks – everyone from Amazon to Barclays Bank has recalled staff to offices in recent months – the idea of living out in the middle of nowhere is looking less feasible than it did when WFH was the norm. The extraordinary cost of commuting just piles on the financial pressure.
Of course some people will always yearn for the country life – last year, despite the fall in numbers, there were still some 60,000 homes sold to those exiting the capital. But the days when entire villages were rapidly consumed by great tidal waves of Londoners, with their spotless Range Rovers and box-fresh Le Chameau wellies, is starting to feel like a phenomenon which we can happily consign to history.
If you’d like to discuss your London Property requirements or find out more about our service offering, then please do contact us for a free and no-obligation introduction call.
Leave a Reply