HOMEOWNERS in a picturesque seaside town fear they’re being forced out by an influx of “hipsters” who have helped double property prices.
“Trendy” incomers from London are being blamed for threatening to wreck Westgate-on-Sea on the Kent coast.
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Average house prices have soared from £150,000 to £328,000 over the past year, according to property search firm Zoopla.
And locals say an exodus of people from the capital – accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic – is responsible.
The resort is less than two hours from London by car, and just ten minutes along the coast from Margate which has also been going through a renaissance in recent years.
Across the UK the average price of a seaside home has leapt by four per cent since 2021 to £304,460.
Emma Edney, a sales negotiator for estate agent Cook & Co, has recently moved after living in Westgate for nine years.
She believes the Kent town has become especially popular to new arrivals as more people work from home.
She says the majority of people now moving in are first-time buyers, home workers and entrepreneurs, the Express reported.
She said: “Since Covid prices went through the roof because all these people from Shoreditch, Hackney, all around that area, were working remotely and haven’t really returned to the office so have just bought up here.
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“It’s the same anywhere on the coast and anywhere that’s not in a city.
“Why would you spend so much rent on London, have no parking or fresh air, when you can come down here, get a pet and work from home?”
The town is also proving popular on travel review site TripAdvisor, with an average rating of four and a half stars out of five – as well as praise for its cleanliness and views.
One user Rhys Hughes described the place as “our haven” which “often feels like a secret little world”.
Another wrote: “This bay gets the sun all day, the sand is washed by the sea each day and it has the best sunsets of all the bays in Thanet.”
Others have acclaimed “the beautiful, clean and smooth sand” and its “lovely unspoilt beach”.
Yet just along the coast in Margate, shocked tourists have vowed never to return in disgust at what they’ve been faced by in the sea.
Yet the town has also won rave reviews this summer for featuring what was described as “the most baffling tourist attraction”.
The resort is also home to one of the oldest theme parks in the UK, as well as a secret beach with one of Britain’s biggest sea lidos.
Other residents who fear being priced out of their seaside town include people in Devon resort Sidmouth, which has topped polls rating the UK‘s prettiest destinations.
Complaints about tourists and second home-buyers have also been made by people in Bamburgh, on the Northumberland coast.
Other seaside resorts where long-standing residents fear being pushed out by new arrivals include Newquay, Falmouth and Padstow in Cornwall and Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Similar concerns have been raised in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire and The Witterings in West Sussex.
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