Salcombe locals priced out by most expensive seaside homes in UK

theguardian.com:

“D on’t hate me,” said Theo Spink of the view from her office on Tuesday afternoon, “but the sun is shining, there’s a gentle breeze, people are arriving for Easter, eating ice-cream. It’s all rather charming.”

If the town of Salcombe, situated on the neck of a narrow estuary in south Devon, sounds idyllic, that is because “it really, really is”, she said. “When the sun shines, you could be in the Mediterranean. It is that beautiful.”

As a local estate agent, Spink has other reasons to be cheerful this week. According to new figures from Halifax, Salcombe is now home to the most expensive seaside properties in Britain, displacing the millionaires’ favourite: Sandbanks in Dorset.

The average Salcombe house price last year reached £1,244,025, compared with a national average of £344,185. The tiny spit of land that makes up Sandbanks may be home to some of the most expensive properties per square foot in the world, but its overall average price last year was considerably lower than its Devon neighbour, at just over £950,000.

This is not a market being driven by locals. While one in 12 of all properties in the local South Hams area are second homes, according to the district council, in some coastal spots such as Salcombe that figure is much, much higher. “I’d have thought perhaps 80% of our sales are to second home owners, people looking for holiday homes or lets,” said Spink, who is the retail sales director of local agents Luscombe Maye. It is marketing a two-bed beachfront penthouse with estuary views at £2.6m.

Prices in Salcombe have risen 123% in a decade and an astonishing 33% in a year – but in some locations the jump has been even steeper. Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight, recorded a 53% leap in average prices to £611,000