19-07-2025
The seaside house price hotspot bucking the coastal downturn
Tom Cole is embracing semi-retirement – and is moving against the tide.
While soaring council tax bills are pushing second home owners to sell up their seaside homes, he is buying. He and his partner, Lee Gunthorpe, are in the process of exchanging their Hertfordshire home for an elegant seaside townhouse in Dartmouth, Devon.
It is one of the few towns that are bucking the seaside price slump. In the past year, prices have breached the £500,000 barrier, with 4pc annual growth, according to Rightmove.
Further along the coast, prices in Sidmouth have fallen by 5pc in the same period (to just under £495,000), while Canford Cliffs is the biggest loser, with prices down 9pc to £975,000. Properties by the seaside across the country rose in value by just 1.1pc in the last year to £318,464.
Cole, 59, a former university lecturer, and Gunthorpe, 56, who traded in his career as a project manager in the City to become a postman, got to know south Devon after Cole's parents moved to Kingswear, on the other side of the river Dart, from Dartmouth, 16 years ago.
'The lifestyle is very laid back,' says Cole. 'You feel as if the pace of life is much slower and you are out of the rat race but there is still a lot to do.'
Since spending £515,000 on their townhouse in March – their similar-sized home in Sawbridgeworth, a 400-year-old converted workshop, is in the process of being sold for £435,000 – Cole and Gunthorpe have been able to indulge in hobbies like kayaking and are volunteering at the National Trust-run Greenway Estate, the former home of Agatha Christie.
The couple already have friends locally and think that making more will be pretty straightforward. 'People seem to be down to earth, happy and approachable,' says Cole.
Dartmouth hasn't escaped from the coastal downturn completely. Second home buyers have all but vanished, says buying agent Ed Jephson, of Stacks Property Search. But Dartmouth has always appealed to retirees or those approaching it.
'I cannot speak highly enough of it, it is a fantastic town, a really functioning all-year-round town' says Jephson. 'Second home owners are quiet, but the void has been filled by people who want to live here full time.
'I am not surprised because the quality of life is second to none. It is a really active, healthy community. I play tennis every week and rarely does it get too cold – you can still be in your shorts in November. There is sailing and walking too, and the restaurants survive because there is trade all year round, which is not something you can really say about all of the South Hams.'
James Archibald, a 36-year-old photographer, agrees. He moved to Dartmouth in the depths of winter, and has been pleasantly surprised by how it functions off-season. Having grown up in north Devon, he was braced to find a town shut down for the winter season.
'It has been revelatory,' says Archibald, who used to live in Exeter, but moved to Dartmouth in December after inheriting his grandparents' bungalow.
'There was still a lot going on, a lot of culture for its size and everything just keeps ticking along. In somewhere like Croyde, for example, come October everything closes and doesn't reopen again until Easter.'
Not only do most of Dartmouth's independent shops and restaurants stay open over the winter, but the town centre, with its pastel painted buildings lined up overlooking the harbour, is picturesque whatever the weather. There are also plenty of annual events, from August's annual regatta to live music and food festivals throughout the year.
Its two schools are both rated 'good' by Ofsted. Trains from Totnes Station 10 miles away take just over two-and-a-half hours to London Paddington.
Richard Blake, of Winkworth estate agents in Dartmouth, believes that the Rightmove figures disguise a more complicated picture.
He agrees with Jephson that second home buyers have vanished, deterred by a combination of general economic malaise, a reported drop in holiday let bookings and a 100pc council tax surcharge.
This has decimated demand for little fisherman's cottages and marina-front apartments that were being snapped up for record prices in 2021 and 2022. But locals' homes, largely flats under £150,000 sold to first-time buyers and family houses away from the waterfront that go for between £275,000 to £475,000, are still trading well.
Traditionally, retirees have been Dartmouth's bread-and-butter buyers, but the town has been benefitting from a younger influx of buyers freed from their offices by working from home, who are keen to start a new life by the sea.
While the UK's population is ageing, the South Hams is bucking the trend according to the Office for National Statistics migration data. It is attracting an increasing number of young incomers.
In 2022, the most recent data available, 17pc of movers into the area were in 20s, and another third were in their 30s and 40s. Only only 22pc were in their 50s and 60s.
Becky Dostal and her partner Arran Watkins, both 30, relocated to Dartmouth in 202, and their move from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has brought the couple career satisfaction.
In Cheltenham, Dostal worked as a chartered accountant and Arran was operations manager for a private jet company. For Dostal, the appeal of spreadsheets and tax returns had started to pall, while Arran was not completely satisfied with dealing with the travel arrangements of the 1pc.
The couple decided to quit their jobs and clear their heads by going travelling for six months. On their return, they decided to move to Dartmouth, largely because Dostal's parents and brother had already relocated to the area.
Once settled into a £650 per month two-bedroom house – a couple of hundred pounds less than they were paying for a similar-sized property in Gloucestershire – Dostal turned her baking hobby into a business, setting up Pebble Pantry and selling her wares online and in local cafes. Arran is an on-call firefighter and works part time for a boat maintenance company.
The couple have found Dartmouth's community 'close knit'.
'You really have to put yourself out there to make friends – it's not like in Cheltenham where there were lots of sports clubs and groups to join,' says Dostal.
But the couple have relished the chance to explore nearby Dartmoor, walk the South West Coast Path and hang out on the beach after work. 'Sometimes it feels like we are on holiday,' she says.
Julie Hill, of The Coastal House, sells seaside homes in the South Hams and Torbay, and has seen the change in the market's focus.
'The market in Dartmouth has really shifted,' she adds. 'There are not many second home buyers, but what we are getting is people who want to buy permanent homes, often early retirees, but young families too, and they are serious buyers – if they see something they like they will buy it.'
'Dartmouth really punches above its weight,' she says. 'People feel that they can relocate down here and have a life all year round.'
