The city-dweller’s dream of downsizing to a seaside cottage or owning a second home on the coast is alive and well... and pushing up property prices. Britain’s seaside towns, with some notable exceptions, are some of the most expensive places to buy a house.

In 24 seaside towns the average property is at least 20 per cent more expensive than the county average, according to the annual review of seaside towns conducted by Halifax Estate Agents. This is most marked in the South West, which accounts for nine of the ten most expensive seaside towns in the UK. Property prices in Sandbanks in Dorset, where the average house costs £488,761, are 106 per cent higher than the Dorset average of £237,774. The national average is £196,895. In Padstow, where Cornish separatists this week protested against English “incomers”, specifically the restaurateurs Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein, pushing up property prices, houses cost £118,785 more than the Cornish average.

The most expensive coastal town in Wales is The Mumbles, where property prices are, at £261,268, at a 92 per cent premium to the rest of West Glamorgan. North of the border, St Andrews tops the price list for seaside towns – houses there, at £223,894, cost 86 more than the Fife average. Prices along the Scottish coastline performed particularly strongly, accounting for six of the ten best-performing seaside towns in Britain over the past year, lead by Girvan in South Ayrshire, where prices rose by 41 per cent from £93,290 to £131,512. In total, more than one third of seaside towns experienced an increase of at least 10 per cent in their average house price in the past year.

However, those who pine for a life of beach-combing and deck-chairs should not despair. There are still bargains to be had along Britain’s coastline, particularly in its south-eastern corner. House prices in 16 seaside towns, seven of which are in the South East, are at least 20 per cent lower than their county’s average. Margate, where the cost of the average house, at £155,084, represents a 30 per cent discount on Kent prices, leads the ranks of the cheaper-than-average, followed by nearby Dover, where prices are 29 per cent lower than the local market rate. With Ramsgate and Folkestone following close behind, Kent, it seems, is the place to go for a cut-price seaside bolt-hole.

Background

• The cost of a sea view

• Bargains on the coast

• FOCUS ON . . . TRURO

• Do floods scupper sales?

• Once more unto the beach

Seaside house prices soar

City-dwellers driving up property prices by the sea

• The boom town rocks

Background

• From winos to wine bars

Background

• Ramsgate rules

• Shoreham gets trendy

• The coast’s next wave

• House Hunter: Sideways to Brighton

• A change in the tide

Related Links

• The boom town rocks

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