Relocation, relocation, relocation: Cheaper houses lure record number of Londoners north
The rate at which Londoners are quitting the capital’s housing market to relocate up north has more than tripled in the last decade, according to research from estate agent Hamptons International.
Around 21 per cent of Londoners who left the capital in the first six months of the year moved to the Midlands and north of England, compared with six per cent during the same period in 2008.
While homeowners leaving London have typically flocked to the south of England, the new shift northwards reflects the growing demand for larger, more affordable properties in cities such as Birmingham and Manchester.
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Hamptons International has also pinned the shift on the subdued wage growth and stamp duty taxes in the capital.
The stamp duty bill for buying a detached home in the south is on average £14,780, compared with £5,358 in the north.
Just over 30,000 Londoners sold their homes in the first half of 2018 to move out of the capital, rising 16 per cent on the year before, although the number is still a very small percentage of the capital's 8.8m population.
Aneisha Beveridge, research analyst at Hamptons International, said: "With affordability stretched, more Londoners are moving out of the capital to find their new home…More people are making a bigger move and buying a larger home sooner to avoid having to pay stamp duty on additional moves as they trade up. But for many, this means heading further North."
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However, the findings also revealed that more first-time buyers are now staying in London to purchase their first home than last year, with Beveridge saying that "savings from stamp duty relief and the availability of Help to Buy has meant that more first-time buyers are able to remain in London than before."