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Homeworkers driving up house prices in the county

blackmorevaleMarch 6, 20210 Comment0

An influx of homeworkers and retirees moving to Dorset is driving up house prices and rapidly diminishing opportunities for locals to buy.

The majority of new build sales in the county are to those aged 55-64 from outside Dorset who can afford to buy, says a report from the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE). The buyers are mostly from the south of England and Midlands but there is also a new wave of buyers: wealthy families from London who want to go rural.

The CPRE says four in 10 UK home buyers are considering a move from the city. Indeed, Dorset has seen a 50% increase in house sales since last June, say estate agents Savills – with sales of houses worth more than £1m doubling in a year. More than half of buyers were relocating to Dorset, with 19% from London and 16% from Hampshire and Surrey.

“Lifestyle relocation remains a big theme as people reassess their work-life balance. More than ever, buyers want somewhere with greater space, a large garden, good schools and countryside,” said Savills’ Ashley Rawlings.

The rush to live in Dorset comes at a time when the county’s workforce has been hit hard by covid-19. The number of benefit claimants in Dorset has risen from 6,085 in Jan 2020 to 8,945 a year later. The average wage in Dorset is also just £23,267 but house prices are rising fast.

In March 2020, the average house price in England was £248,000 but in Dorset it was £285,000, with new build houses averaging £325,000. The Dorset Local Enterprise Programme (LEP) says that, in its view, an average Dorset income struggles with the affordability of buying a house, as the mortgage multiples are out of reach.

Dorset Council’s Local Plan, currently being debated, acknowledges a shortage of affordable housing is seeing radical changes to the county.

The Plan states: “These high house prices, combined with a reliance on low wage economic sectors such as tourism and agriculture, create a high level of affordable housing need. They also contribute to the out-migration of younger people which, combined with an in-migration of older people, results in an ageing population and often makes it difficult for local people to buy or rent houses locally. “From 2007- 2017 Dorset saw a net loss of 15-19 year-olds to other parts of the UK, with net gains mostly among those aged 30+. However, the highest gain was in those aged over 65.”

According to the CPRE, in the decade to 2018 only 17% of affordable houses were built by housing associations or local authorities – the rest were built by commercial developers.

This is another area of concern, as the CPRE points out that developers always promise a proportion of new builds will be affordable homes – often 30%-40% – but then cut figures, blaming costs and cuts to their profit margin. The first 90 Taylor Wimpey homes in the Gillingham southern extension currently only designate 20% as affordable. In Shaftesbury, Redrow was last week accused of failing to honour agreements on its new estate at Littledown, while trying to add 41 homes to its original plan for 170.

Dorset Council is asking residents to give their opinions on housing, including second home ownership. It concludes: “We have undertaken some analysis of our need for the tenure of affordable housing which looked into what Dorset residents could afford, compared to the costs to either purchase or rent homes in the Dorset Council area. It showed that although some residents could afford to purchase homes, there is a proportion who cannot.”