You know that in America people are racing to escape the city. But the USA isn’t alone.
Residents of London and other UK cities are looking to escape as well. Many are heading to Wales, where property is relatively inexpensive. Carol Peett, managing director of West Wales Property Finders told the Wall Street Journal’s Ruth Bloomfield that “It has gone completely berserk here. Everyone just wants to escape.”
Sound familiar?
Bloomfield writes:
With 870 miles of coastline and more than 1,500 square miles of national parkland, Wales, a country smaller than New Jersey, punches far above its weight when it comes to second-home ownership thanks to a combination of natural beauty plus affordability.
There are 24,200 second homes in Wales, or 1.8% of its total housing stock. according to research by Savills. The Welsh county of Gwynedd, which includes Snowdonia National Park and a stretch of western coastline, has the highest level of holiday homeownership of any county in the U.K at 8.4%. The second highest levels are found in Pembrokeshire, with 6.8% of homes owned as vacation properties
Agents suspect that, after months of lockdown, these numbers could increase as British buyers rethink both their lifestyle and the traditional English second-home destinations such as Cornwall. “It has gone completely berserk here. Everyone just wants to escape,” said Carol Peett, managing director of West Wales Property Finders.
“Wales has everything Cornwall offers and it is less crowded and less expensive,” she said.
Around half of Ms. Peett’s clients are second-home buyers, the majority from London. Their budgets range wildly. Some want a pretty two-bedroom cottage in a seaside resort such as Tenby, in Pembrokeshire, which Ms. Peett estimates would cost around $293,600, while others have seven-figure sums to spend on modern trophy homes.
With rock bottom interest rates making loans cheap, and riots and sickness flowing in the crowded city streets, is it any wonder people want to go up to the country?
Action line: Get out in the country for a while and flee the big city blues.
