‘I’m praying the market might crash’: Young people in the UK’s rural hotspots feel priced out

The pandemic inspired some people to leave cities for a more spacious rural life – but what was the impact on young adults living in popular regions?

“There were periods over the last year where there were no properties at all to rent in the town or even a few miles into the surrounding area.”

That observation must have come from people living in the places we know as property hotspots, right? Wrong.

One of the ongoing narratives we heard over the course of the pandemic was how remote working was leading people to give up city life in favour of bigger, cheaper and more rural living. For many people with desk-based jobs, there was no need to be within travelling distance of the office any more, so expensive flats in and around London and other major cities were traded in for houses in the countryside or by the sea.

Something we heard less about, though, was the impact on people living in those regions where property increased in popularity over lockdown. Lowri, a 29-year-old classroom assistant and freelance writer living in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, home to the Snowdonia National Park, says the influx of people coming to Wales over the pandemic was “overwhelming”.

House prices in Wales grew by 11% over the past year – the highest growth rate in the UK. Younger buyers found that houses already had offers made on them for significantly over the asking price by people who hadn’t even viewed them yet.

“I’m just burying my head in the sand and praying the market might crash,” says Lowri. “Even when Wales was closed [in lockdown] and we were staying home, it was still being flooded with tourists who didn’t respect the rules,” she says. “You can feel like where you live is just a playground. I’m hearing about houses being bought unseen, and the prices in North Wales rising more than anywhere else in the UK.”

Further down the Welsh coast is Abersoch, a picturesque seaside village. “I’ve got a friend who grew up there, and there’s no way he could afford to live there now,” she says. “It’s full of these incredible millionaires’ houses that are empty for most of the year, external. It’s really frustrating when people say ‘you just need to work harder’ – the average income in that area is not that high, you could work your arse off for years and never be able to afford a property.”

In Gwynedd, the median gross weekly income was £479 in 2020,, external which is approximately a pre-tax salary of just under £25,000 – definitely not enough to buy a seven-figure home. In March this year, the county council announced measures to mitigate this – second home owners in the area will now pay double council tax on their holiday homes.

Tamsyn Kelly, 30, a comedian, grew up on a council estate in Penzance, and left when she was 18 to go to drama school in London, where she still lives. Her younger brother, who’s 27, still lives with their mum on that same council estate, and many of her friends are still in Cornwall and unable to afford to rent or buy their own home.

“My plan was to make money in the city and go home and live in Cornwall eventually,” she explains. “A few years ago, that seemed possible, but now there’s no way I could afford a property at home now. If I went home I’d have to for a housing association property.”

She says, only half-jokingly, that if she and her boyfriend broke up, she’d be “screwed” – he was able to buy a flat in London using inheritance, and Tamsyn says moving in with him was the only way she got out of the “renting cycle”.

According to data collected by Rightmove, sold prices for all types of property in Cornwall rose by 15% compared to 2019. When looking only at flats – a more common purchase for first-time buyers – they had also increased, with a 4% rise since 2019. The average price of a flat in Cornwall last year was £207,566.

When you compare that to the average salary, you can see the problem. The median weekly pay, external in the south west of England in 2020 was £558, dropping to £499 for people aged 22-29. That’s a pre-tax yearly salary of approximately £25,950 – so a flat costs nearly ten times that.

Of course, not everyone will want to, or be able to, think about buying, but the picture for renters is just as bleak. A Guardian investigation in May found that at the time of writing there were over 10,000 Airbnbs available across Cornwall but just 62 rental properties, external listed on Rightmove.

“It doesn’t make any sense for my brother to try and get rental accommodation,” says Tamsyn. “In Penzance, [homeowners] think, ‘why rent it out when I could Airbnb?’ I think it’s becoming harder and harder for young people to stay in Cornwall – most of my friends there are still living with parents, and we’re nearly 30. People aren’t able to get on with their lives and meet normal adult milestones.”

Increases in rental prices across the UK has been much slower, with rents increasing 1.2%, external over the year to April 2021. This was largely due to rents in London falling, as some people left the city.

Not everyone leaving London was looking to rent or buy somewhere else – one study, by business consultancy firm Future Strategy Club suggested that 20% of 18-34 year olds moved from London back to their family home over lockdown. Having a family home elsewhere in the country that could still accommodate them implies a degree of socioeconomic comfort, and the data appeared to back this up – of the 2,090 people surveyed, just 6% were in low-paid jobs. While the rent decreases may be good news for them, others around the country are struggling to find homes at all.

Sam Fawcett, 28, lives in Wellington in Somerset, a small town without a train station. Despite this, he describes “an influx of newcomers” to the town, even before Covid struck.

“Three new average sized housing estates have gone up in the last five years and another large one is just starting construction,” he says. “But it doesn't seem to have lowered house prices at all. In fact, my parents' neighbours have just sold their house for £100,000 more than when they bought it four years ago.”

Sam, who currently rents with his girlfriend, says the pair were surprised at how popular the area seemed to be last year. They’re not planning to move, but like to keep an eye on the local market “just in case we need to move because of finances or our contract gets terminated”.

“The main thing I've noticed was how few properties are on the market at the moment,” he says. “There were periods over the last year where there were no properties at all to rent in the town or even a few miles into the surrounding area. Now there’s six, but only three are within our price range. I know some of this must be because of Covid, but even in 2019 it was much harder than we thought it would be to find somewhere.”

Anya Martin, from Priced Out – an organisation campaigning for cheaper housing – says that she’s been hearing about incomers from cities driving regional prices up a lot anecdotally. Priced Out isn’t doing any official research on it, but is aware people feel strongly about it, she says.

“It’s a natural eventuality that if people move out of London and cities, they’ll move to other regions. That’s not matched with an equivalent supply of new homes,” she tells the BBC.

“There are going to be winners and losers through this. The people who remain in cities may well see their rents have declined, but that’s matched on the other side by people in towns and villages in the UK, who now have new, high-income neighbours which could push prices up.”

So what does this mean for the next generation’s ability to afford a home of their own, post-pandemic, either by renting or buying? Anya’s assessment is stark: “Wealthier people moving to towns is bad news for renters and young people,” she says. “It means renters are less able to afford the amount of space they want and may end up in lower-quality housing. There are some very expensive rural areas, but it’s bad news for the local economy – there’ll be no one to provide care services or run cafes.”

One of the ways to start tackling the problem, says Anya, is to change people’s mindsets around building new homes. “Most people I speak to actually agree that more housing is needed,” she says. “But it depends how the issue is raised. Most people will say yes – but when you tell someone they’re building 30 homes down the road from them, they say no. We need to get people to realise they’re the same question.”