Bidding war expected for £250k beach hut
A BEACH hut is up for sale for £250,000 but it has no electricity or running water and you cannot sleep in it.
The property has prime position on the promenade in Southwold, Suffolk – a resort popular with celebrities including Michael Palin, Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis.
Beach huts on the south coast can be more expensive with selling prices for some in Dorset exceeding £500,000.
But the huts in Southwold, which have no electricity or running water, are subject to strict local by-laws that ban anyone from sleeping overnight.
The hut, called “Here’s Hoping”, measures 10ft 6in wide, offers spectacular views across the North Sea, and is just a short walk from pubs, restaurants and shops along the promenade. It also has glazed double folding doors and a number of storage cupboards.
The buyer will have to pay annual ground rent of £998 and will only have 18 years left of a 30-year lease, although there is an option to renew.
The previous highest price asked for one of Southwold’s 300 beach huts was £150,000 in September 2018.
Prices have soared since then as property prices have continued to increase and the demand for staycation breaks following Covid-19 has boomed.
Huts in Southwold – famed for its Adnams brewery, pier and lighthouse – are rarely on the market and some have been in the same family for generations. Many are rented out for around £600 a week to visitors who flock to the town.
The latest asking price is more than double the price of a three-bedroom terrace on the market for £110,000 10 miles away in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
A spokesman for Flick & Son, the estate agent selling the hut, said: “I am sure it will go very quickly. There is a high demand for huts and we expect there will be a bidding war in the end.”
More than half the properties in Southwold are second homes and the full-time population is now below 1,000. Councillors earlier this year unveiled plans to try and stem the number of second homes to make more affordable housing possible for locals.