Cornish property searches overtake London as pandemic housing madness continues
Property website, Rightmove, has revealed that Cornwall has overtaken London as the most searched location on its website.
It said that in January and February 2020, the top locations were London, Cornwall, Devon, Bristol and Glasgow. After a year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cornwall had taken the top spot from London.
In December 2020, the 12-month average annual house price change rate for the UK was 8.5%, the highest since October 2014.
In September 2020, this figure was 4.7%, and for the St Austell and Newquay constituency, it was 8.3%, the highest of all Cornwall constituencies.
Finn Wightman, an estate agent from Stratton Creber Countrywide St Austell, spoke of buyers’ desperation to find a home in the area: “We’ve had people from out of county driving down early in the morning to view one property just to then drive back home in the evening.
“We’ve had a couple of instances with people buying a property which they haven’t even viewed and a couple where offers have been made on the first day of marketing over the asking price.”
RNAS Culdrose mechanical air engineering supervisor, Jamie Grant, experienced first-hand the lengths people are going to for their dream property in Cornwall when selling his house in Redruth. Within three days of putting his house on the market, two people from London were interested.
One was prepared to buy the property without ever visiting it.
Mr Grant said: “Obviously, Covid’s probably causing people to do that because we were in the lockdown so she actually couldn’t come and see it in person, so she was willing to see it via a video Skype call. Which I think is crazy because you can’t actually see the house and its details.”
A first-time buyer, also from London, travelled to Cornwall to view the house and put in an offer, but one Friday morning, she pulled out of the deal.
However, this was not the end.
Mr Grant continued: “Someone came round to view it on the Friday. They viewed it again on the Saturday and they actually bought it for five grand more than it went originally. So, I lost the sale on the Friday and then literally the day after, it was sold again.
“I speak to the estate agent quite a lot and she said at the moment she’s selling properties and it’s like 50% locals and 50% people from up-country.”
Rightmove suggested that the particular appeal of Cornwall as a result of the pandemic is the amount of open space it offers. This could be a refreshing antidote to months upon months of lockdown in a more built-up area.
