As Londoners stagger through heatwave after heatwave this summer, we can but envy our coastal neighbours, with their sweet sea breezes and lunchtime dips. But even if you’re back at your desk for all or part of the working week, you don’t need to give up on the coastal dream — there are plenty of seaside spots that can get you to central London in 90 minutes or less by train.
Using exclusive data from Savills, Homes & Property has pinpointed five locations to consider depending on whether your priority is low-cost housing, a super-speedy commute or a buoyant property market.
The best seaside hotspots near London
Portslade, East Sussex
Best for: schools
Average house price: £527,400
Fastest train to central London: 70 minutes
Season ticket cost: £5,680
Bordering smart Hove to the west, Portslade is popular with the upsizing crowd who want more space without having to leave the catchment area for popular schools such as King’s, Blatchington Mill and Hove Park, says Samim Nabizada, senior sales consultant at Jacobs Steel estate agents. As a result, house prices have shot up by 19.9 per cent over the past five years, compared to Brighton’s 4.2 per cent increase.
“A property in Portslade could cost you £500,000 for the same square footage you would pay £600,000 for in Hove. As mortgage rates have risen over the past three years, that has seen Portslade’s popularity increase,” says Nabizada. Independent businesses are flourishing, the high street is on the up and it’s a very family-orientated area, also popular with downsizers from Hove freeing up equity. Streets bordering Benfield Valley are very popular thanks to their big detached houses close to the South Downs.
Downsides: You might still have to travel to Hove or beyond to find a wider selection of bars, restaurants and cafés. Certain pockets are still quite gritty and some parts are underserved by public transport, say locals.
Margate, Kent
Best for: culture
Average house price: £290,100
Fastest train to central London: 87 minutes
Season ticket cost: £7,220
It’s a full 15 years since the Turner Contemporary gallery opened, signalling a ramping up of the arts and culture-led regeneration of Margate, and the town’s appeal shows no sign of slowing. Queen of Pop Madonna called the creative community her “idea of heaven” and it has seen house price growth of 16.8 per cent in five years.
“Margate is a really special town. It’s full of people wanting to do their own thing who aren’t afraid to have a go. Everybody just seems to support people; the community comes together,” says Georgina Wilson-Powell, 45, who moved to the town from south-east London seven years ago with her wife Beth, 44 (they have since acquired a dog, too). “There’s always so much happening. We really punch above our weight in terms of culture, art and music. We have amazing independent shopping and very few chains,” she adds.
Cliftonville is the “Hackney-on-Sea” area where DFLs (Down From Londoners) tend to buy,” says Wilson-Powell, who runs Don’t Miss Margate, a weekly listings newsletter for the town. “You’re only a five or 10-minute walk from the sea depending on where you live. Over by the station is getting more popular now, too, with better pubs and more shops.”
Downsides: Weeknights can be quiet and the winter is definitely a change of pace. “But once you’ve experienced a few summers here it can be really lovely to have the beach to yourself,” says Wilson-Powell.
Canvey Island, Essex
Best for: shortest commute
Average house price: £447,250
Fastest train to central London: 37 minutes
Season ticket cost: £4,492
Styled as the Thames Delta by Wilko Johnson, with his band Dr Feelgood being Canvey Island’s most famous export. It was historically inhabited by East End transplants, and its latest wave of incomers includes a Hasidic Jewish community. “We’ve got so many different cultures on Canvey and people get on really well. It’s a very welcoming, accessible area and people come together over local issues,” says Hayden Connolly, senior sales consultant at Anthony Quirk & Co. “We see a lot of first-time buyers here because it’s affordable. Many people come here as a stepping stone, and then quite a few end up staying,” he adds. He estimates that a three-bedroom bungalow would cost about £375,000, compared to £550,000 for a similar property in Leigh-on-Sea.
Most of Connolly’s buyers are local or moving from outer east London. The most prized areas are on the seafront, running from Thorney Bay and all the way around the Eastern and Western Esplanades. Older properties (from the post-war period) tend to come with larger plots and so command higher prices up to the low £800,000s. There is little new building because the land is below sea level, and Connolly recommends that buyers use local conveyancers and surveyors who understand how to interpret the flood risk.
Local hotspot Labworth Café is housed in an impressive building designed by distinguished engineer Ove Arup. There are plans afoot to convert the area next to it into a year-round hub, and a new splash park is slated to open next summer at The Paddocks Community Centre. The Street & Co coffee shop overlooks Thorney Bay and there’s a buzz around the sea wall in summer. Tribute bands play regularly at Jimmy Mac’s diner.
Downsides: It is an island and traffic on and off can be punishing during rush hour and school runs. As a result, says Connolly, Canvey is popular with lorry drivers and people who work odd hours, as well as hybrid workers.
Folkestone, Kent
Best for: short commute
Average house price: £299,400
Fastest train to central London: 54 minutes
Season ticket cost: £7,180
“It’s very easy to be outside and in nature here and it’s very beautiful. There are lots of hidden paths, we’re five minutes from the sea and we can ride our bikes to work,” says Jade Pooley, 41, of her adopted hometown, where she has lived for the past six years with her husband, Ollie Chester, 38, and their five-year-old daughter. This despite the town being less than an hour from St Pancras by train. Pooley now runs Yoke yoga studio on Guildhall Street, which is “like Hackney before it got gentrified”. Chester, formerly of Soho Farmhouse, runs the café upstairs.
To live like a local, Pooley recommends walking in the opposite direction to the hordes of daytrippers. Pop into town for an ice cream at Massimo’s and go shopping at The Potting Shed, or head to The Warren for a nature walk or to The Leas to promenade along the clifftop.
There is a thriving local arts scene, fostered by umbrella organisation, Creative Folkestone, which runs a public art display, the Folkestone Triennial art festival and a book festival. A former primary school teacher, Pooley is also happy with the choice of schools available, which includes everything from forest schools and well-regarded state options to (this being Kent) grammar schools. Developers have caught on and the Shoreline development on the waterfront has flats for sale from £375,000.
Downsides: There have been sewage leaks into the sea, which have the locals up in arms.
Dover, Kent
Best for: lowest house prices
Average house price: £215,900
Fastest train to central London: 65 minutes
Season ticket cost: £7,220
Having returned to his hometown of Folkestone following stints in Paris, London and Bogotá, 38-year-old Harry Johnson is about to move into a two-bedroom flat in Dover, which he bought for £96,000. “In part I bought in Dover because it’s a bit cheaper than Folkestone but mainly it’s because I have friends over there and there is a real sense of possibility there,” says Johnson, the executive chef at Keppels at The Grand in Folkestone.
“It feels like it’s been quite neglected for a number of years but there’s a nascent group of people trying to do quite creative, entrepreneurial things,” he says, citing the Art Club, a co-working space/café/bar/venue, as an example, as well as the Breakwater Brewery and The Hoptimist taproom. “There is also a really strong sense of history. The castle is from the 1060s, there’s a Roman villa, medieval churches and gorgeous Georgian architecture. It surprises you when you get beyond the received notions of Dover being deprived and druggy. It has this cultural richness. It’s only an hour from London and you can hop on a ferry and be in Calais in two hours.”
Downsides: Some areas of the town remain very deprived.
