Our beach hut was worth £3,000 back in 1982. Now... it's almost half a million pounds

Yahoo

3 days ago

Yahoo News speaks to the owner of a beach hut on Mudeford Sands, Dorset, about why the holiday homes sell for "breathtaking sums."
Tucked away on a remote sandy peninsula off the Dorset coast is a community of beach huts that are among the priciest in the UK.
With gorgeous coastal views of the coast off the nearby town of Christchurch, soft white sand and clean, clear water, it's easy to understand why the 350 or so huts on Mudeford Sandspit are so highly prized.
One online travel guide says you might have to "pinch yourself" to check you're still in England, with one local owner likening the setting to the south of France.
And the prices reflect that. Anyone wanting a taste of beach hut living will probably have to pay somewhere between £350,000 and £465,000, according to Denisons Estate Agents.
That's if you're lucky enough to get hold of one, of course.
Many of these huts are passed through the generations as precious "family heirlooms", Stephen Bath, who part owns one of the huts, tells Yahoo News.
"My hut cost exactly £3,000 in 1982. It would conservatively fetch £450,000 today," says Bath, managing director of aerial photography company Skycab Ltd.
"These huts seem immune from the regular fluctuations of property prices," he says. "This is partly because there are more building plots made available in England all the time. But there is finite space at Mudeford. There have perhaps been 10 new hut plots since 1980."
Another reason, says Bath, is that the huts get plenty of publicity whenever one sells for a "breathtaking price."
Despite averaging just 150sq ft in size, they are "worth 50% more than the average home in Britain", he says – and that's with no mains electricity and no running water.
Another restriction means owners are only allowed to sleep in the huts - converted from Victorian-era bathing machines - between March and October, due to local rules.
Bath says people are so eager to buy a plot on Mudeford Sandbank "because it's so famous and breathtakingly beautiful. It's the South of France effect".
Another selling point, he adds, is that owners can park their boats right outside their huts, like a car outside the home, providing easy access behind the sandspit and into Christchurch harbour.
As for the price, Bath says the top prices huts have sold for are often a "well-guarded secret", adding that one sold for £585,000 around eight or nine years ago.
"It was very hush-hush," he said, adding: "The sellers have usually made a very tidy sum for their asset, especially if it's been in the family for a long time. Perhaps they are slightly embarrassed to cash in and leave such a unique community."
Growth is 'not sustainable' and 'prices are cooling'
Purchases of these beach huts are cash only, which makes them out of reach to many aspiring owners, which perhaps adds to the sense of exclusivity of the community.
If you are lucky enough to have over £350,000 lying around, investing might seem like a no-brainer, but Denisons - which has sold around 100 huts in the past 25 years - says the huts are still vulnerable to market forces.
"Huts have followed the residential sales trend," said principal Andy Denison. "Prices have risen significantly in the past 10 years, as a result of demand for the huts."
He says that while "significant demand after COVID did raise the bar on resales", prices have "noticeably cooled off in the past eight months and sellers are reacting by reducing the prices in order to attract buyers".
One property expert even advised that, due to the huts only being available for cash and the limited yearly window you can sleep in them, they wouldn't particularly recommend them as an investment.
Felix Newall-Smith told Yahoo: "They're not really the sorts of properties that we would be encouraging people to invest in, unless they had a really clever angle on how they could make a profit in the limited period of time."
Simon Barnes, from estate agent Winkworth, told Yahoo the huts have a unique appeal due to their "desert island" feeling - but not to hold your breath in hope of one becoming available soon.
He added: "It's fair to say that these are legacy assets, passed down through generations of the same family. What has become a lovely thing to have and enjoy, remains a lovely thing to have and enjoy but has also become a prime, prize, exceedingly valuable asset.
"Rarity value against demand is always one of the main factors in property which drives values.
"They're so desirable because you really do have a genuine 'desert island' feeling when you are on the sandspit. With sea on either side, no concrete, just drifting sand, birdlife aplenty, and the pretty huts set in the long grass of the dunes, it has this really wild feel."
Viewings are taking place, "but not at the levels we have experienced in the past", says Denison, who adds that the idea of continual growth is "not sustainable", with prices adjusting to sales in the wider residential market.
With around four huts coming into the market per year, according to the estate agents, it's easy to see why, despite changing market conditions, they are still highly coveted.
Most owners are 'never going to sell their huts'
Whatever way the market is pointing, Bath, who was born in Southbourne Broadway just one mile away from his hut, says most owners wouldn't part with their family holiday homes anyway.
While out-of-towners have to pay a £25,000 licence transfer fee to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, the fee for licencees transferring to their children is only £11,550, according to the council's website.
Bath, former managing director of Bath Travel, inherited his hut from his father, who first bought the home in 1968 for £1,600.
Having worked on the beach as a student in 1972, Bath says not a lot has changed, estimating that only 10 huts have been built since then due to the finite space on the peninsula.
While all of the beach huts synonymous with Britain's coastline are remnants of bathing machines, which became obsolete after the First World War, Bath says no one knows why the Mudeford ones are so much bigger than the ones beachgoers would see in many other coastal towns.
They are so sizeable and sturdy that they were temporarily removed from the beach between 1940 and 1947 due to fears German soldiers could use them as outposts if they invaded the beach, Bath says.
This is yet another aspect of the community's unique history, which might explain why so many owners, according to Bath, are in no hurry to sell.
'Around 75% of the huts are still in the hands of families who bought them a long time ago and have passed them down generations," he says.
"Most people don't consider themselves as rich as they are never going to sell their huts… they have them as an heirloom for their family."
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