Salcombe in Devon may be the country's priciest coastal place, with some hotels charging nearly £500 for a night's stay, but up at the opposite end of England there's a seaside town that advertises rooms for just £25 per person.
The "underrated" beachfront town of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea has been named as the cheapest seaside location in the UK to buy a home, with an average house price of £117,763. The compares with Salcombe, where one estate agent has set the average price of a house at over a million pounds more — at £1,246,087.
A house on the seafront is likely to set you back closer to £300,000, with many of the cheaper homes located further inland. However, locals say the town is "underrated", as it has a series of stunning quirks.
The Devon resort has cafes charging £2.80 for a latte, but up north they cost £1.90. Fish and chips by the sea in Salcombe can cost £13, but that compares with around £9.40 in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. Punters pay £3.60 for a pint of basic lager in the northern resort - but in Salcombe some listings show £6. In Newbiggin-by-the-Sea a bucket and spade costs £5. In Devon one place charges £11.
Newbiggin's town centre is packed with independent shops, backing onto the only south-facing bay in all of Northumberland. Many of those who grow up there see no reason to leave, while those who arrive fall in love pretty quickly.
And it's not the first time that Newbiggin has been in the limelight recently, when it was named one of the top trending Airbnb resorts in the UK in July 2022. All of this is a huge turnaround from a town once ranked in the top five per cent of the most deprived areas in the UK. Tourism has now overtaken fishing and mining as the town's key industry.
Hazel Steel, 64, grew up in Newbiggin and has had her shop, Sew Quilted by the Sea, for nearly seven years. She described the town as one of the most underrated places in the UK and says that it is inundated with tourists who are attracted by the lower cost of living, with a meal for two and a bottle of wine coming in somewhere between £20 and 25.
The mother-of-two said: "It's one of the most underrated places in the UK. The bay is south facing so you get sunlight from the crack of drawn until sunset. There are lots of lovely places to eat out and we have events on all the time and all the shops are independent except for the Co-op. There's a really nice community here and people visit the caravan parks two or three times a year.
"It's down to earth but really creative, house prices are rising because everyone wants to be here. People come here because of the fact it's a little bit cheaper. We get a lot of tourists from all over the world. There's a lot more going on now."
Karen Carr, 58, has owned craft shop Seventy Seven for more than two years and has just opened up a sweet shop next door. She described the town as a staycation heaven and plans on selling handmade sticks of rock for as little as 40p. She said: "The town has a gentle flow of tourists from Easter until October. We find that people who come here for a weekend often end up moving because they fall in love with the place.
"It's the land that time forgot really. Everyone here is lovely and charitable and what you see is what you get. We don't have tourist prices and local prices, we like to keep it fair for everyone. There is a price parity."
The same study that found Newbiggin-by-the-Sea was the cheapest seaside location to buy a property in England named Salcombe, in Devon, as the most expensive. A night at the cheapest hotel on a given night in July in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea for two comes in at £70 (and it's right by the beach), while in Salcombe you're looking at £322.
Ladhars Fish Bar has been in Jagadip Ladhar's family since 1998. The 35-year-old says that it would be impossible to charge the prices seen in resorts like Salcombe and other parts of Devon and Cornwall. He said: "We wish we could charge those prices, but we just don’t think it’s fair on customers. People take advantage of the seaside location and know they can charge what they want.
"Once families are there, they are not always looking at the price of stuff, if the kids want something to eat the kids are going to get something to eat. Fish and chips is so expensive now it’s become a luxury, especially in places like Devon and Cornwall when they can charge what they like really."
While Newbiggin-by-the-Sea clearly has a lot going for it, some residents are worried about the increase in house prices and that the town could become a "victim of its own success". Sheila Harrison, a volunteer with the Newbiggin Heritage Partnership who has lived in the village for more than 50 years, told ChronicleLive in 2022 that the increase in property prices coupled with a lack of jobs meant that young families were finding it much harder to get a foothold on the property ladder.
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And after seeing town's further north, such as Beadnell and Warkworth, become "saturated" with holiday lets, it is hoped that low property prices will not be to the detriment of the community if they are bought by investors who live outside of the area. Sheila said: "A lot of visitors are keen to see Newbiggin but quite a lot also use them as a base to see other parts of Northumberland.
"And I think because Beadnell is saturated they're coming further south because further north you just can't buy properties to be Airbnbs - and that's what's forcing the prices up, as well as people wanting to live here."
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