Desirable homes revealed

A four-bedroomed, detached property by the seaside in the south east is the most desired home in the UK, according to a new Desirability Report from thinkproperty.com, a leading consumer property portal. Nearly 1m homes are brought and sold each year in the UK, but over half of the nation are not happy living in their current home according to the new Desirability Report, which was conducted amongst 500 home owners nationwide.

The 2007 Desirability Report showed that a four-bedroomed property in the countryside in the south west was the most desired property, whereas the 2008 Desirability Report shows that the location has changed dramatically, highlighting the effect that the ‘credit crunch’ has had on property owners this year. Seaside towns are seen by many property investors as providing stronger growth and therefore become a more solid investment thanks to high demand from those seeking to retire and their popularity for second home-buyers – a more ‘desired’ property given the current market conditions.

The results show 18% of respondents would like their ideal home to be situated in the South East followed by London (16%) and the South West (15%), the North West (10%) and Wales (8%). Over one third of respondents would like to live by the seaside, with 24% who would like to live in the countryside, 21% would like to live in a rural village and 16 per cent would like to live in a city.

For over a quarter of the nation’s home owners, a family-sized detached house would be their most desired property with 21% looking for a country house and 10% searching for a designer flat. Seven per cent of home movers would like to live in a mid sized semi-detached house and less than 5% would like to live in a small terraced property, with the same number wanting to live in an executive home or a suburban mansion. Just 1% would consider their ‘ideal’ property to be a studio flat.

Nearly 50% of homemovers would be prepared take less expensive holidays in order to afford their ‘dream’ home, with 39% prepared to dip in their savings, a third would borrow extra money and 31% would downgrade their cars to free-up some money to afford to move. Just 16% were not prepared to sacrifice anything to live in their ideal property.

Nearly 85% of home movers said they would start looking for their most desired property via the internet, through property portals like thinkproperty.com. Ten per cent would go to an estate agency directly and just 3% would first look for their ideal property in the local newspaper.

Mark Goddard, Managing Director of thinkproperty.com comments: “Our 2008 Desirability Report gives a good indication of what home owners want from a property and what they would do to buy it, giving estate agents a clearer picture of what consumers are looking for.

“With the tightening of mortgage lenders’ belts, half of all home owners feel stuck in a property that they are not happy living in and this should not be the case – the Government needs to sit up and take notice of this housing crisis and create more affordable housing in areas of the country where people actually want to live.”