Few first-time buyers are looking to buy property on the coast, with most instead gravitating to the cities, Rightmove analysis shows.
The number of future first-time buyers looking to move to popular coastal areas is completely flat compared with 10 years ago. In contrast, city demand has increased by 16%.
Despite this disparity, both the city and coastal locations have increased in price by 41% over the last decade on average.
Colleen Babcock, Rightmove’s property expert, said: “We’ve seen a number of changes to the property market over the last ten years. Perhaps most notably is during the pandemic, when many people temporarily left cities and looked to the coast or countryside.
“Comparing where we are now versus a decade ago, it looks like there’s even more appeal from potential first-time buyers to live in cities, though the data does show that it can vary quite widely from city to city, and it will also depend how first-time buyer friendly a particular location is in terms of the type of homes that are available for sale.
“Coastal areas haven’t seen the same level of growth as cities from this type of buyer, and again it may be partly due to the availability of suitable homes in these areas for first-time buyers as well as affordability.”
Dundee has seen the most significant jump in first-time buyer enquiries, nearly tripling over the last 10 years (+176%), followed by Edinburgh (+91%) and Doncaster (74%).
London as a whole does not follow the city trend, with overall first-time buyer demand in London down by 7% versus 10 years ago, with higher asking prices a likely contributor.