The sleepy corner of Suffolk where the property market is on fire

Telegraph

14 hours ago

When she lived in London, Stacey Lascelles rented a flat on the booming Archway Road with a constant soundtrack of traffic. There was no garden and she couldn't afford to rent alone, let alone buy, so she lived with three flatmates.
Today, Lascelles lives in bucolic Mid Suffolk, which stretches north from Ipswich. Her days are punctuated by birdsong and the occasional whinnies of horses grazing in her field.
She and her young family have acres of space, and there are other benefits to her change of location and lifestyle.
'I really like the vibe of Suffolk – the people and the culture,' she says. 'There is a really good community, people are welcoming and supportive, and there is never a shortage of people if you need help.'
Newcomers like Lascelles have fallen for rural Suffolk's combination of peace, beauty, affordability and accessibility – trains from Stowmarket to London take about 80 minutes, and you can be in Cambridge in just under an hour.
These buyers are helping the area to buck the trend of price falls and stagnation, which is currently blighting much of the South.
In the past year, average prices in Mid Suffolk have jumped by 11.8pc, according to the Land Registry, far above the growth of 6.7pc across England.
It also compares favourably to better known rural hotspots – the Cotswold district has recorded price falls of 7pc in the same period, while Devon's fashionable South Hams scraped 1.5pc growth.
And, with average prices of £335,000, Mid Suffolk is also an affordable option compared to the classic Home Counties like Surrey (£526,311), Hertfordshire (£464,313) or Buckinghamshire (£479,894).
Value for money
Charlie Philip, of Jackson-Stops estate agents, believes Mid Suffolk's strong price growth is – in part at least – thanks to this difference in price, offering great value for money.
'A lot of people we are seeing are coming from more affluent areas – Kent and Surrey – due to interest rates,' he says.
'Their five- or 10-year deals are coming to an end, and they are selling up more expensive properties and buying an exceptional house, on a par with what they are selling, for a lot less money. They can come out here and enjoy country living of the same quality that they are used to.'
In London, Lascelles, now 34, lived in her north London flatshare and worked in publishing. Her life changed when she met her now-husband John, 35, through mutual friends. He was based in Norfolk, and after a year or so, Stacey joined him, getting a marketing job with a local horse feed company.
Fate took a hand when the couple were asked to house-sit a property for a friend in Suffolk. They liked it so much and found it so handy for John's job as a design engineer in Cambridge and Stacey's marketing job in Suffolk, that they decided to relocate.
Just before the pandemic, the couple bought a three-bedroom cottage in Wetherden, a village outside Stowmarket. It cost £425,000, and is now valued at £675,000. They have three acres of land, more than enough for their two border terriers, Stacey's horse and her daughter's miniature Shetland pony.
Lascelles is expecting a second child later this year, and she and John have set up a side hustle too, Hampers of Haughley, which sells baskets and hampers full of locally sourced food and drink.
For some ex-Londoners, the allure of the Cotswolds is its big name venues like Soho Farmhouse and Daylesford Organic, where they can hang out with their network of urban exiles.
But Lascelles is happy with her local pubs and small farm shops. 'Suffolk is much more rustic and much more authentic than the Cotswolds,' she says. 'It is less polished, but that doesn't worry me in the slightest.'
'A best-kept secret'
In the market town of Stowmarket, Stuart Ellis, of William H Brown estate agents, sees plenty of first-time buyers born and raised locally, and looking to spend £250,000 to £290,000 on a three-bedroom house.
Since the median full-time salary in the east of England stands at just under £40,000, according to the Office for National Statistics, a small family home like this is well within the grasp of many young couples.
Meanwhile, in London, the median annual wage is £44,000, but an average starter home costs £511,500 according to Halifax, leaving first-time buyers in the capital facing an often insurmountable affordability gap.
These first timers, said Ellis, drive demand up the ladder – although there are limits.
Around 90pc of his buyers are already based in East Anglia, and most will not spend more than £500,000. Above that, homes take longer to sell, particularly because only such a small proportion of buyers come from beyond the region and have large slices of equity earned in higher-value markets.
'During the pandemic, we had a lot of people coming up from London and they all wanted a Grade II-listed thatched cottage in the countryside,' said Evans. 'That drove up prices, but those homes now take longer to sell.'
Before the pandemic, Kristine Hall, 42, and her husband Dan Osman, 43, often spent weekends in Mid Suffolk, relishing its peace and quiet as a welcome antidote to life in South Woodford, east London.
'It was kind of a best-kept secret,' says Hall. 'Beautiful, reasonably priced, and easy to get to from London. There was a massive lack of people, which is what we wanted.'
Like Lascelles, she found it superior to the Cotswolds. 'I tend to avoid touristy places, especially when I was living in London,' she explains. 'I would rather have somewhere genuine and authentic.'
Moving there wasn't an option – until Osman, who works in insurance, was freed from the nine-to-five during the pandemic.
In 2021, the couple and their five-year-old daughter, Juniper, sold their four-bedroom terraced house and bought – for less money – a five-bedroom part-Tudor house set in 4.5 acres in the village of Earl Stonham, 10 miles north of Ipswich.
Hall, an interior designer, brought her business, Restoring Lansdowne Interiors, with her. Four years on, and the family is well settled into country life.
Like Lascelles, Hall has been impressed by the friendliness of the locals, the beauty of the countryside and the peace. As an added bonus, she hasn't encountered a DFL (down from London) set – or a backlash against them.
'There is a real mix of people with really interesting histories and life experience,' she says. 'There are lots of creatives, but not necessarily ones who have done the London thing.'