St Mawes is an idyllic sailing community on the south coast of Cornwall. In the past year, it’s experienced the biggest percentage rise in average property prices of any UK coastal resort. The average price for a detached home in this idyllic location has more than doubled to £502,000. This is a jaw-dropping 48% jump. The former price was £340,000. This breakneck pace of price increases is forcing much of the local population out of the housing market.
Marazion, meanwhile, has experienced something of an invasion. Yet strangely, it still doesn’t lay claim to the title of the UK’s most expensive coastal town in Cornwall. According to the latest Halifax Seaside Town Review, Padstow claims that honour, with an average house price of £616,000. The trend is as unambiguously ominous throughout the region. Seven of the top ten most expensive British seaside towns are in south-west of the country. Salcombe in Devon trenches ahead with a mind-boggling £950,000 average house price. Sandbanks in Dorset is not too far behind, with a staggering average of £836,000.
Such enormous increases in property value should be apparent to the local real estate agents. H Tiddy estate agents has sold homes in St Mawes for more than a century. Of their first visit, it was today that they reported back on how business couldn’t be better—an all time high! Senior valuer Thomas Sparkes noted that “we haven’t had time to work that sort of thing out,” emphasizing the frantic pace at which properties are being sold.
The phones at H Tiddy estate agents must ring off the hook as eager new arrivals seek to acquire properties in St Mawes. With such incredible demand, the market has seen varied types of inventory become available. Included is a magnificent waterfront home with solar-heated swimming pool for £4 million, as well as a picturesque end-of-terrace former fisherman’s cottage at just half a million pounds.
For many area residents, the influx of new wealth driving up property values has caused tremendous harm. Jon Scorse traded up to his current home in St Mawes 35 years ago for £135,000. Fast-forward 35 years and he watches his original property’s value climb to over a million pounds! He remarked, “People think about the problems places like London have in housing key workers. We have the same challenges.” This sentiment is indicative of a broader trend in how residents feel about increasing unaffordability and the displacement of communities.
Local resident Frazer Cochrane highlighted the fierce competition among buyers. “People are snapping up every home that goes on the market,” he stated. He noted the frantic nature of his work in real estate. “Work is mental. I don’t complain too much.”
This wave of elite transplants has led to concerns over cultural dispossession. An anonymous female worker expressed her distress over the changes in St Mawes, stating, “There’s no community here anymore. You used to know everyone; now there are so many newcomers. They’re even buying up the old council houses.” That feeling of sadness is shared by many of the long-time residents who are finding themselves pushed out from their own neighborhoods more and more each day.
Andrew George, a local advocate for housing equity, articulated the broader implications of these trends: “As they arrive, the lopsided, unjust housing system marches local families out to a precarious existence in the crammed estates of inland towns.” Her testimony points to the chasm being created by wealthy invaders and increasingly desperate longtime residents who are just trying to hold onto their homes.
Local sentiment is further echoed by Simon Miller, who noted, “Come in the winter and there are hardly any lights on,” reflecting the seasonal nature of many new arrivals who may only inhabit their homes during holiday periods.