Country getaways market thrives as city folk escape

THE rural luxury rental market has “gone mad” as affluent Londoners scramble to escape the city, willing to pay vastly inflated sums to secure the best properties.

Holiday letting companies are struggling to keep up with a surge in enquiries for coastal or countryside properties as city dwellers move to escape the crowds and self-isolate “comfortably” with plenty of space. Experts reported frenetic activity in the past few days as families desperately try to secure desirable properties ahead of a predicted lockdown.

The most popular locations for those seeking to escape the capital, as well as those who have had forthcoming skiing and Easter breaks cancelled, include the Cotswolds, Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall and the Lake District.

Bella Seel, founder of private travel company ALS Sun, said clients were willing to pay twice the normal rents to secure the best properties, which are costing as much as £70,000 a week. Many are trying to negotiate deals by which they pay over the odds in order to avoid minimum six-month clauses.

Meanwhile, some owners who live in rural locations are deciding to make the most of the situation and downsize in order to cash-in.

Ms Seel said: “I have clients who have never rented out their homes who are now are thinking, if people are offering crazy money and I can rent it out for £30,000, why the hell not?’”

She said: “People want to evacuate, they do not want to be in London where there are so many people, they want to get out and isolate comfortably. This is the luxury market; one client is looking for a property in the Cotswolds for a minimum of six months and will pay more to secure it so I’m negotiating with the landlord.”

Nigel Stengard-green, managing director of Luxury Cotswold Rentals, said web traffic was up by 200 per cent and bookings by 150 per cent on the same time last year. He said the Cotswolds was proving popular due to its accessibility and rural location that combines with “a hint of luxury and glamour”.

He said: “Some clients that perhaps had planned to go skiing, or to city destinations for Easter, are now reconsidering plans. We are trying to square the circle – we have existing guests, potential guests and property owners and are trying to make things work for everybody in these extraordinary times.”

As an example of how many are trying to help each other, he said the owner of a three-bedroomed cottage had agreed to let it to a pregnant woman very keen to escape London at a low-season rate for six months.

“The owners would have gone to stay there themselves but agreed to make it available out of goodwill and will now rent another property,” he said.