Western Morning News (Saturday)
Newquay tops table as ‘hottest seller’s market’
ACORNWALL town has seen unprecedented property sales, with eight in ten homes put up for sale this year already sold.
Surfer’s paradise Newquay has been named the “hottest seller’s market” in the entire of the UK by property website Rightmove after analysing sales figures for 2021.
Across all homes put up for sale in the town since January, 82 per cent of them have already been sold.
This puts Newquay’s property market as the best-selling in all of Britain, relative to the number of homes on sale.
The figures come from Rightmove, which has analysed a total of 300,000 properties in the UK which have come on the market this year so far.
Newquay beat Newton-Le-Willows in Merseyside, Plymstock (81 per cent) and Whitchurch, Bristol (78 per cent) to the top of the seller’s list.
As well as being the fastest-selling on the list, Newquay was also the most expensive. The average asking price for 2021 so far has been £351,398.
Second place Newton-Le-Willows had an asking price of £182,280, and nearby Plymstock is £268,980.
Rightmove previously revealed that property for sale in Cornwall had outranked London as the most searchedfor place for people to live in the UK.
It also reported that sales across Cornwall had grown a staggering 31.7 per cent year on year between December-March 2019/20 and the same period in 2020/21, after a few years of declining sales.
Bradley Start, Partner at Start & Co Estate Agents in Newquay, said: “The stock shortage is the worst I’ve seen in thirty years and there’s just seemingly endless demand.
“We’re getting requests for viewings within minutes of a property going on Rightmove and many properties are going to best and final offers due to the competition, something that usually we would only see a few times a year.
“It’s a mix of locals moving, people buying holiday homes and those relocating completely, which is leading to more out-of-town buyers than we would normally see.
“Those who are choosing to relocate are, understandably, looking for a home right by the sea, which is pushing up demand even more for those homes with the all-coveted sea view.
“The lack of stock I think is mostly down to the fact that sellers are unsure that they will be able to find a replacement property to buy, but if more sellers decided to come to market this would help across the whole chain.”
Rightmove also reported that the whole of the South West – and large parts of the North of England – were becoming more and more popular.
The South West because of the desire to move to the sea and countryside, and the North for cheaper prices.
This all comes as no surprise, with people wanting to come to Cornwall not only as a holiday destination – but as an escape to the country.
The stock shortage is the worst I’ve seen in thirty years and there’s just endless demand BRADLEY START
An entire year of Covid restrictions, said Cornwall-based estate agent Ian Lillicrap, co-founder of Lillicrap Chilcott, created a perfect storm for the county’s property market.
He said that he had thousands people looking to buy in what is the fastest property sales game he’s ever seen.
“The stars have aligned for the UK property market as a whole,” he said last month.
“But in the case of Cornwall, and other places like Edinburgh to be honest, there are extra factors which have caused the market to be incredibly strong.”
He added, however: “I don’t want to overplay it, Cornwall has been a popular place for many years.”
The incredible speed of properties for sale in Cornwall going off the market has caused issues for some, though.
One family on the Lizard Peninsula were left with a bill of thousands because of last-minute sales and people trying to capitalise on the gold rush.