Switching the city pad for a countryside pile
COLIN Ellis, the chief economist at the BVCA, has been working in the City for over 15 years. He had always lived in London, but seven years ago, he upped sticks and moved his wife and kids to Surrey, exchanging a one-bed flat in Clapham for a three-bedroom house in Wouldingham. Now he commutes for half an hour on the overland train into London Bridge. “I’d already had my fun in the city. I wanted big green spaces – proper green space, not little pockets of green in parks – and more space. It’s difficult to get that combination unless you move out of the city.”
Ellis is a prime example of the well-established trend for selling up and moving out to the countryside. James Grillo, a specialist in the Home Counties area for Chesterton Humberts says the movement has been gathering speed now that the housing market has started to recover. “With the cost of private school and London property shooting up, lots of parents are opting to move out for more space and access to better schools.”
Grillo says that the out-shifters are usually “successful City types who initially buy a property in London, sending their children to private nurseries and primary schools, until they their reach mid-to-late thirties and are thinking about the availability and expense of secondary schooling.”
Money certainly goes further outside of London, but by how much depends entirely where you want to live. Grillo says properties in the “classic commuter belt” towns of Guildford, Dorking and Basingstoke do not come cheap. Whereas “emerging commuter belt” in Ashford, for instance, are still at a slight discount because not everyone has cottoned on the speedier commute that can be had through the new Hindhead Tunnel and along the A3. In Guildford, for example, out-shifters need £2m to land themselves the archetypal five-bedroom country cottage. In Ashford, one only needs £1.25m.
There are other quirks in the market that savvy investors can capitalise on. “For some reason – and I can’t work out why – towns north of London like Hitchin and Harpenden are neglected and come at a slight discount in comparison to Surrey. They have are equally leafy and offer speedy commutes into the City.” Tim Hubbard of Property Vision says buyers who opt for these less convential Home County hot spots could save themselves 10-20 per cent on a like-for-like property.
Ellis was more interested in lifestyle benefits when picking his country home: “I love the shift in pace of life. It’s nothing like London. Everything takes longer but nobody is in a rush. Perhaps I’m getting old, but I really like it.”
Country life is not without its drawbacks. Commuters do, of course, love to moan about their commute. A 12-month season ticket from Guildford to London Waterloo will cost you £2,916 – and that’s not including the odd occasion you miss the last train around midnight and are forced to get a taxi home. Ellis says: “I don’t mind my commute too much, but I could do without the walk up the hill to the station in the morning. Annoying, but worth it for the better quality of life.”