Escaping to the country will cost you less inWales
ONE of the cheapest places to buy a country retreat is in Wales. New figures from the annual Halifax Rural Housing Review have shown that home buyers can expect to pay a premium of more than £44,000 for a countryside retreat.
Across Britain, countryside homes are £44,454 or a fifth (20%) more expensive on average than those in urban areas, according to the annual Halifax Rural Housing Review.
Property prices in rural areas are typically 7.6 times average annual earnings, compared with a ratio of 6.5 in urban areas, the report found.
The typical rural house price-tolocal earnings ratio ranges from 11.4 in North Dorset, 10.8 in Chichester and 9.9 in West Oxfordshire, to 4.1 in Copeland and East Ayrshire.
Looking across the regions, the “rural premium” is particularly steep in the West Midlands, where an average rural home costs £89,272 or 47% more than one in the region’s urban areas.
The smallest gap in percentage terms was found in the East of England, where the average premium on countryside homes is £27,765 or 9%.
The most affordable rural area in Wales according to Halifax was Carmarthenshire.
With a house price-to-local earnings ratio of 5.2, Carmarthenshire came joint eighth in the UK for affordability alongside Highland Scotland.
Douglas Haig is MD of The Seraph Group, a portfolio of property-based businesses. He is also vice-chairman and director for Wales of the Residential Landlord Association.
He says that the figures need to be contextualised. He said: “There is a caveat in terms of how figures are put together.
“There are larger houses in rural areas compared to cities. I suspect if we looked at per square foot it would be more expensive in the city centre.
“Houses in rural areas tend to be larger, have more land attached and there are fewer of them.”
He also believes that changes in demand for rural properties can be put down in part to change in how people work.
He said: “Transport links are getting better in rural areas. Also, with the internet, the type of work people are doing is changing and more people are working from home so it does allow them not to be based in a city.
“With regard to Carmarthen there are probably more rural properties available so that supply can keep prices lower.”
Richard Washington, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “Homeowners looking to escape to the country can expect to pay an average premium of 20% for a property.
“Housing affordability, particularly in the south of England, is putting a country home out of reach for many people, especially those looking to buy their first property.”