|
Acouple of decades ago, England’s 1,300 or so market towns seemed in terminal
decline. High streets had been deserted in favour of out-of-town
supermarkets, the only shops that opened were charity ones, and the few
remaining tearooms struggled along with an increasingly elderly clientele.
House prices, too, seemed caught in the doldrums.
Today, however, market towns are buzzing again. In cobbled town squares across
the country, new businesses are setting up stalls selling local veg, fresh
bread and venison burgers. Designer boutiques and coffee shops have moved in
with the traditional antiques dealers and farm-supply shops, while estate
agents have been doing brisk business. Themarch of gen-trification has been
matched by rapid double-digit price growth.
The best performer over the past year has been the pretty yellow-stone town of
Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds, where prices rose 32% in 2007, compared
to the national average of 6%. That takes the cost of the average property
to £478,781, according to research conducted for The Sunday Times by Knight
Frank. It was closely followed by Chapel-en-le-Frith, a small Derbyshire
town on the edge of the Peak District that dates back to the 12th century
(up 27% to £214,186), and Thornbury, 12 miles north of Bristol (up 24% to
£257,827).
Related Links
Over the past five years, the fastest growth has been in Gainsborough, on the
eastern bank of the River Trent in Lincolnshire, where prices have increased
by 156% – albeit only to a modest average of £97,198. Home to 17,500 people,
the town has recently seen the redevelopment of old riverside warehouses
into residential accommodation.
Other market towns that have witnessed above-average price growth include
Shipston-on-Stour, a predominantly Georgian town in Warwickshire that has
plenty of foodie pubs and bou-tique hotels; medieval Devizes, in Wilt-shire,
home to the Wadworth brewery; and Richmond, in the Yorkshire Dales; so
picturesque, it is often used as a film location.
“Properties in these prime market towns now attract a premium,” says Liam
Bailey, head of Knight Frank’s residential research department. “They are
attracting younger families, not just retirees. Buyers should expect to pay
10% to 20% more for a period property in a market town than for a similar
property in a larger town, suburb or undesirable rural location.”
Although they will not escape the broader current downturn, Bailey believes
they will probably be a safer bet than most other towns and suburban areas.
“Market towns will outpace urban areas, excluding central London, in the
next couple of years,” he predicts.
The growing popularity of market towns, which generally have a population of
anything from 3,000 to 30,000, has been driven largely by the changing
tastes of Londoners, says Bob Bickersteth, managing director of The London
Office, based in Pall Mall, which provides a shop window for 33 out-of-town
estate agencies with 177 offices from Cornwall to Northumberland.
Instead of edging out into the suburbs or fleeing to complete rural isolation,
an increasing number of buyers moving from the capital are looking for a new
home where they are within walking distance of not just the countryside but
also a decent cappuccino.
“Nobody wants to be stuck at the end of a farm track in the middle of
nowhere,” says Bickersteth. “And larger towns like Guildford, Tunbridge
Wells, and Sevenoaks, though once popular, are now seen as overdeveloped and
overpriced. The smaller market towns win over. It comes down to the charm of
the place, the quality of the schools, a local golf course – and proximity
to a Waitrose.”
Bickersteth, who is hosting the Move to the Country Show, at Battersea Arts
Centre this Thursday, has also noticed a growing number of urbanites taking
advantage of the house-price differential between London and the rest of the
country by selling and moving out – not just getting out of the rat race but
also paying off part or all of their mortgage.
This is just what Danielle McCabe, 29, and her husband Jamie, 36, have done.
The couple, who own a fitness business, began their search last summer when
they put their three-bed flat in central London on the market. Last month,
they traded it for a £600,000 four-bedroom house, with a garden, in Chipping
Campden. Their new home may be Cotswold stone on the outside, but the
interiors are as modern and pared-down as their former loft in the capital.
“We really felt we’d had enough of London and wanted to get away from it all –
but not too far,” says Danielle. “We didn’t want to isolate ourselves, and
Chipping Campden is a perfect compromise. There’s also a good mixture of
people. It’s not narrow-minded at all, but a really liberal community, a mix
of old and new.”
It is this diversity that helps keep prices in the town above those elsewhere
in the surrounding area, says Martin Frost, manager of the RA Bennett estate
agency in Chipping Campden, which has a waiting list of people looking for a
pretty period property in the town.
“It’s an aspirational place to live: buyers pay a 15% to 20% premium to live
here,” says Frost. “The high street hasn’t changed in a couple of hundred
years, so it feels like living history. But as villages lose their shops,
pubs and primary schools, people suddenly don’t want to be out in the
sticks. They like the idea of being in a market town where they can walk to
the shops for a paper in the morning and walk back from the pub in the
evening.”
Some of the most successful – and now increasingly expensive – market towns
have worked hard to bring life back into their town centres. In Richmond,
the council allocated grants to businesses to renovate premises above shops.
As a result, the town centre, formerly scarred by boards and graffiti, has
become a far more welcoming and friendly place. In Sturminster Newton,
Dorset, the closure of the cattle market a decade ago left the town rather
rootless, but the community came together and there is now an arts centre,
theatre and workshops on the site.
Not all market towns can offer the same facilities and command the same
premium, though – and there are differences between the former mill towns of
Yorkshire, the picturesque Gloucestershire cobbled markets and the
predominantly agricultural market towns of the southwest.
Indeed, according to James Greenwood, managing director of Stacks, a buying
agency, some are downright unattractive and have something of an image
problem. “They are stuffed full of desirable houses, but nobody wants to
live there,” he says. “In many, the town centre is dead after five o’clock.”
Attempts are being made, however, to address the problem and encourage the
kinds of shops, cafes and other attractions that tempt people to move
there.This month saw the launch of Towns Alive, a £2m initiative run by
Action for Market Towns, a campaign group set up to regenerate the
once-forgotten communities. The aim is to revitalise town centres further
and prevent them turning into dormitory towns whose main appeal is their
fast train links to London, Birmingham, Manches-ter or Leeds.
Chipping Campden, however, has managed to bridge that gap by attracting
commuters while maintaining a good sense of community. The last word goes to
Danielle, a new convert to the market-town way of life: “I can walk into
beautiful countryside within 10 minutes, and I can still go to a cafe every
morning and have a croissant if I want.”
|
