The seaside house price hotspot bucking the coastal downturn
While soaring council tax bills are pushing second home owners to sell up their seaside homes, he is buying. He and his partner, Lee Gunthorpe, are in the process of exchanging their Hertfordshire home for an elegant seaside townhouse in Dartmouth, Devon.
It is one of the few towns that are bucking the seaside price slump. In the past year, prices have breached the £500,000 barrier, with 4pc annual growth, according to Rightmove.
Further along the coast, prices in Sidmouth have fallen by 5pc in the same period (to just under £495,000), while Canford Cliffs is the biggest loser, with prices down 9pc to £975,000. Properties by the seaside across the country rose in value by just 1.1pc in the last year to £318,464.
Cole, 59, a former university lecturer, and Gunthorpe, 56, who traded in his career as a project manager in the City to become a postman, got to know south Devon after Cole's parents moved to Kingswear, on the other side of the river Dart, from Dartmouth, 16 years ago.
'The lifestyle is very laid back,' says Cole. 'You feel as if the pace of life is much slower and you are out of the rat race but there is still a lot to do.'
Since spending £515,000 on their townhouse in March – their similar-sized home in Sawbridgeworth, a 400-year-old converted workshop, is in the process of being sold for £435,000 – Cole and Gunthorpe have been able to indulge in hobbies like kayaking and are volunteering at the National Trust-run Greenway Estate, the former home of Agatha Christie.
The couple already have friends locally and think that making more will be pretty straightforward. 'People seem to be down to earth, happy and approachable,' says Cole.
Dartmouth hasn't escaped from the coastal downturn completely. Second home buyers have all but vanished, says buying agent Ed Jephson, of Stacks Property Search. But Dartmouth has always appealed to retirees or those approaching it.
'I cannot speak highly enough of it, it is a fantastic town, a really functioning all-year-round town' says Jephson. 'Second home owners are quiet, but the void has been filled by people who want to live here full time.
'I am not surprised because the quality of life is second to none. It is a really active, healthy community. I play tennis every week and rarely does it get too cold – you can still be in your shorts in November. There is sailing and walking too, and the restaurants survive because there is trade all year round, which is not something you can really say about all of the South Hams.'
James Archibald, a 36-year-old photographer, agrees. He moved to Dartmouth in the depths of winter, and has been pleasantly surprised by how it functions off-season. Having grown up in north Devon, he was braced to find a town shut down for the winter season.
'It has been revelatory,' says Archibald, who used to live in Exeter, but moved to Dartmouth in December after inheriting his grandparents' bungalow.
'There was still a lot going on, a lot of culture for its size and everything just keeps ticking along. In somewhere like Croyde, for example, come October everything closes and doesn't reopen again until Easter.'
Not only do most of Dartmouth's independent shops and restaurants stay open over the winter, but the town centre, with its pastel painted buildings lined up overlooking the harbour, is picturesque whatever the weather. There are also plenty of annual events, from August's annual regatta to live music and food festivals throughout the year.
Its two schools are both rated 'good' by Ofsted. Trains from Totnes Station 10 miles away take just over two-and-a-half hours to London Paddington.
Richard Blake, of Winkworth estate agents in Dartmouth, believes that the Rightmove figures disguise a more complicated picture.
He agrees with Jephson that second home buyers have vanished, deterred by a combination of general economic malaise, a reported drop in holiday let bookings and a 100pc council tax surcharge.
This has decimated demand for little fisherman's cottages and marina-front apartments that were being snapped up for record prices in 2021 and 2022. But locals' homes, largely flats under £150,000 sold to first-time buyers and family houses away from the waterfront that go for between £275,000 to £475,000, are still trading well.
Traditionally, retirees have been Dartmouth's bread-and-butter buyers, but the town has been benefitting from a younger influx of buyers freed from their offices by working from home, who are keen to start a new life by the sea.
While the UK's population is ageing, the South Hams is bucking the trend according to the Office for National Statistics migration data. It is attracting an increasing number of young incomers.
In 2022, the most recent data available, 17pc of movers into the area were in 20s, and another third were in their 30s and 40s. Only only 22pc were in their 50s and 60s.
Becky Dostal and her partner Arran Watkins, both 30, relocated to Dartmouth in 202, and their move from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has brought the couple career satisfaction.
In Cheltenham, Dostal worked as a chartered accountant and Arran was operations manager for a private jet company. For Dostal, the appeal of spreadsheets and tax returns had started to pall, while Arran was not completely satisfied with dealing with the travel arrangements of the 1pc.
The couple decided to quit their jobs and clear their heads by going travelling for six months. On their return, they decided to move to Dartmouth, largely because Dostal's parents and brother had already relocated to the area.
Once settled into a £650 per month two-bedroom house – a couple of hundred pounds less than they were paying for a similar-sized property in Gloucestershire – Dostal turned her baking hobby into a business, setting up Pebble Pantry and selling her wares online and in local cafes. Arran is an on-call firefighter and works part time for a boat maintenance company.
The couple have found Dartmouth's community 'close knit'.
'You really have to put yourself out there to make friends – it's not like in Cheltenham where there were lots of sports clubs and groups to join,' says Dostal.
But the couple have relished the chance to explore nearby Dartmoor, walk the South West Coast Path and hang out on the beach after work. 'Sometimes it feels like we are on holiday,' she says.
Julie Hill, of The Coastal House, sells seaside homes in the South Hams and Torbay, and has seen the change in the market's focus.
'The market in Dartmouth has really shifted,' she adds. 'There are not many second home buyers, but what we are getting is people who want to buy permanent homes, often early retirees, but young families too, and they are serious buyers – if they see something they like they will buy it.'
'Dartmouth really punches above its weight,' she says. 'People feel that they can relocate down here and have a life all year round.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
4 minutes ago
- The Independent
Marks & Spencer advert with ‘unhealthily thin' model banned
An advert for Marks & Spencer has been banned for featuring a model who looked 'unhealthily thin'. The UK advertising watchdog concluded that it was 'irresponsible' for the retailer to use the image to advertise clothes on its mobile app. The Advertising Standards Authority said the model, who was wearing slim-fit trousers and a white top, 'appeared thin and she wore large pointed shoes which emphasised the slenderness of her legs'. Camera angles used also made the model's head appear out of proportion and 'highlighted her small frame', the ruling added. 'Therefore, we considered that the pose of the model and the choice of clothing meant the ad gave the impression that the model was unhealthily thin,' the ASA said. The retailer apologised for any offence caused and removed the image. An M&S spokeswoman said: 'Our womenswear sizing ranges from size 8 to 24 and we always want to reflect that in our advertising. 'The product images on our website feature models of varying sizes so we can appeal to all our customers, however following the ASA guidance, we have removed this particular image from our website and apologise for any offence caused.' Three more images were reported to the ASA by consumers, but the watchdog said there was no breach and did not ban them.
Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Informa slumps to £254m loss as dollar and US tech spin-off weigh
Informa shares jumped on Wednesday despite the publisher and events organiser slumping to a loss after shouldering a major impairment over the first half. The FTSE 100 firm, which owns academic publisher Taylor & Francis, posted a statutory pre-tax loss of £254.2million, compared to a £237.4million profit over the same period last year. Informa faced a £484.2million non-cash impairment related to its TechTarget business, which was spun-off and listed in the US late last year. The marketing business has seen its share price slump 70 per cent since its December IPO, meaning its market capitalisation has fallen below its net assets and resulting in the impairment TechTarget saw a 4.3 per cent decline in underlying revenues during the first half, which Informa blamed on a 'subdued market backdrop'. Its tech customers are prioritising 'AI-related research and development over investment in product marketing and sales support', according to Informa. But the wider Informa business still saw bumper reported revenue growth of 20.1 per cent to just over £2billlion over the period, as it benefited from new product lines as well as strong growth in live business-to-business events and academic markets. And Informa expects momentum to be maintained as it upgraded it full-year underlying revenue growth guidance from around 5 per cent to more than 6 per cent, helped by growth of more than 8 per cent in live business to business events. The upgrade comes despite further weakening of the US dollar, which has fallen roughly 7.6 per cent since the start of 2025. Informa claims that every cent movement in the dollar impacts its revenues by around £18million and adjusted operating profit by roughly £7million on a full year basis. The group also revealed a fresh £150million share buyback programme for the second half, after buying £200million back at an average price of 757p during the first. Boss Stephen A. Carter sad: 'Informa is further increasing the pace of performance, delivering 20 per cent+ growth in our four key performance measures: revenues, profits, earnings and free cash flow. 'Informa is built around world class brands, leading International market positions, first party data and, most importantly, colleagues with specialist expertise and a passion to deliver for customers.' Informa shares were up 5.7 per cent to 873.4p in early trading, bringing 2025 gains to around 8 per cent.
Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Opinion: Britain is at the mercy of bond markets
It took the British government more than three centuries to rack up debts of £1trillion. That milestone was reached in 2010, in the wake of the financial crisis. It took just ten more years for our debts to hit £2trillion. They now stand just shy of £2.9trillion – and will hit £3trillion either this fiscal year or next. So that's another trillion racked up in less than a decade. Yes, there's the impact of inflation . And the triple-whammy of the financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy shock after the invasion of Ukraine , all of which pushed the debt higher as the government borrowed to support households and businesses. But as the Office for Budget Responsibility warned in a recent report highlighting the parlous state of the nation's finances, successive governments have failed to take the action required to bring the debt back under control in the wake of those crises. And the government's annual borrowing bill has hovered around 5 per cent of GDP a year since the pandemic – levels only previously seen during recession or war. This is a major headache for Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget this autumn. And that spells yet more pain for households and businesses – because however the Chancellor spins it, another round of tax rises are coming. They will be big. And they will be painful. This is because, far from being a 'beacon of stability' in an uncertain world, as Downing Street would have us believe, Britain is at the mercy of the bond markets. One only has to look back at the Liz Truss debacle to know that twitchy bond markets matter. And twitchy they are. To such an extent that UK gilt yields – a key measure of how much it costs the British government to borrow – are the highest in the G7. In fact, the UK has the third-highest borrowing costs of any advanced economy after New Zealand and Iceland. This is because international investors look at Britain – with its soaring debts and lack of political will to do anything about it – and do not like what they see. So they charge the UK government more to lend it money than almost every other similar economy in the world. To understand what that means one only has to look at the today's figures from the Office for National Statistics that show the UK paid £16.4billion of interest on the national debt in June alone. This was £8.4billion more than in the same month last year and the second highest June on record, amounting to nearly £550million a day and more than £22million an hour. So we are now in a situation where we are forecast to spend £111billion this year servicing the national debt – and just £62.2billion on defence. With the economy slowing, fears are mounting that the fiscal situation is getting worse not better. The scene is set for another punishing Budget this autumn.
