Beach hut for sale...at £480k
THIS cosy beach hut has gone on the market for £480,000 – and it doesn’t even face the sea.
The timber chalet in Mudeford, Dorset, has been owned by the same family since the 1950s when they bought it for £400.
It measures just 16ft by 13ft, but is able to command the same price as a four-bedroom house in some parts of the country due to its unique and isolated setting on the island-like sandy spit of Mudeford sandbank.
The peninsula is home to Britain’s most expensive beach huts.
Cars are banned there and the only way to reach the spot is via a 20minute walk, a short ferry trip or a ride on the area’s road train.
View
There are 360 huts at Mudeford, with some facing the sea and others, like this one, having a view over Christchurch Harbour.
The huts have no running water or mains electricity, and toilets and washing facilities are in a communal block.
Known as Hut 106, this one can only be slept in from April to October.
The site has 12v lighting and a fridge freezer powered by solar panels on the roof. It also has a gas cooker and a camping toilet.
It can sleep up to seven people in the converted lounge area and on a mezzanine level, right. Andy Denison, of Denisons estate agents, said: “This is a good-sized hut that fronts on to the harbour with a westerly aspect so you get the sunsets.
“It’s a great spot to sit and watch the world go by, the boats going in and out of the harbour. The harbourside is also great for small children because you can keep an eye on them playing on the foreshore.
“If you’re into paddle boarding or windsurfing you can keep your equipment right in front of you and it’s more protected from the sea. “There are people who don’t think badly to paying £400,000 for a beach hut. The market has levelled since the times of Covid and staycations, but people still like that lifestyle there.” The hut has been much loved by its owners, and several generations of the family have enjoyed summer holidays there. But they have now decided to sell it – for 1,200 times what they originally paid for it.
Over the past 25 years the value of the beach huts on the remote sandbank have soared in value. In 2002, chalets at Mudeford generally sold for £73,000.
But the following year one broke the six-figure mark for the first time. By 2014 they were selling for as much as £270,000 and, four years later, they hit the £300,000 mark.
The record price paid for one was £575,000 in September 2021, off the back of the pandemic and the rise in staycationers.
The land the huts are on is owned by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council and “hutters” pay for the right to have a hut on a plot. Hut 106 comes with a council licence fee of £3,000 a year.