From property to coffee, prices on the coast have only gone up since we quit the capital, writes Sophie Morris
I think the moment that finally broke me was when my favourite cup of coffee burst the £4 barrier - that’s how much we used to pay for an hour of extremely high-quality childcare when we first moved from London to east Kent, eight years ago, in 2017.
How coffee and childcare could be in any way aligned in price is baffling. And this new price point isn’t confined to independent coffee shops who can lay claim to prize-winning baristas or unique bean blends.
Our local Costa now charges £4.40 for a latte. My coastal town used to be known as a quiet place to retire. Now it’s been regenerated - more homes, a livelier high street, but also more London-level prices.
For generations, people have left the capital to find cheaper accommodation and living costs elsewhere, but this gap is closing, as property prices stall in the capital and everyday luxuries such as meals out and public transport soar elsewhere.
I say it was the latte’s fault. But maybe it was the six-quid bus fare. Six quid for a 10-minute return journey! I hadn’t taken the bus for a while, usually driving or cycling, but I’d rather walk for 45 minutes than pay £6 for that displeasure again.
What about those who can’t do a three-mile walk but need to take this bus every day? That would be £30 for a five-day working week, or £42 if you want to travel on the weekend as well, while in London a seven-day TfL travel card is now £42.70 - and this is in one of the country’s poorest areas, where people typically earn far less than workers in any city.
Anyone who’s lived in the UK for more than a minute will know how expensive property and life is in the capital, and other major cities like Edinburgh or Manchester are closing in - from six-quid pastries to pints closing in on a tenner. But as things catch up around the rest of the country, is the prospect of leaving town losing its lustre?
I was a cliché rather than a pioneer when, in 2017 with a one-year-old in tow, I realised it was time for me to leave London and graduate to a life of suburban novelty like outdoor space and a nook to store the buggy in.
I swapped a two-bed flat with no outdoor space in central London for a three-bed semi with a garden. In truth, I hadn’t been quite ready to leave, but once I arrived and discovered how much easier life could be compared with the daily grind and slog of the city, I was hooked.
By 2021, with the new era of pandemic hybrid-working, the exodus had become a stampede. In our small town, it was handbags at dawn for months between buyers from south London who’d discovered that a modest sale in the capital could buy them a seafront villa.
Financially speaking, we were lucky to move when we did. The average house price in the area was £216,134 in 2017, but is now £272,000, according to the Office for National Statistics, while the Kent Property Market Report puts this figure far higher, at £349,534.
Which might explain why the frenzy to move out of London is over. Hamptons revealed late last year that the number of Londoners leaving the capital has plummeted to the lowest level for more than a decade - 45 per cent fewer than they bought in 2021.
The gap that once made moving so attractive is closing fast. “In 2016 you were saving around 39 per cent, or £194,000, if you bought in the South East instead of London,” explains Aneisha Beveridge, the head of research at Hamptons. “Today, that gap is 31 per cent, or £173,000.
“What we’re seeing is that people are getting a bit less house for their money than they were. For the majority of people, you can still save money by buying outside of London. But that gap has narrowed.”
And it’s not just property. When we moved to Kent I was having my hair done for half the price it cost in London, by a stylist who had just left one of the capital’s top salons to live out here. That £100 cut and colour is now almost £200.
We were delighted when exciting new chefs left London to try their luck around here. But while Michelin-star pubs used to do set menus for a song, a meal out now costs pretty much the same whether you’re in London or Kent, give or take slightly higher service and alcohol charges.
We know that the cost of living crisis has changed everything, with inflation across all areas of life from energy bills to car insurance and the food shop, but it’s crazy that so many everyday items are catching up with prices in the capital.
Healthy indulgences like yoga classes have soared from under a tenner to almost £15. I don’t expect to see a pint for less than a fiver.
Like most people, I’ve changed my habits, such as finding a cheaper hairdresser and ditching the colour. I ask my hairdresser, Grace Gebbie, who owns Graceland salon in Margate’s Old Town, how she has managed to keep her prices reasonable amid rampant rises elsewhere.
“My average cost for a colour and cut here is £150 while in London I could charge at least £400,” she says. “But I haven’t put my prices up that much since 2018 because I want to keep it affordable.
“The cost of products has increased a huge amount, so I guess I am taking the cut for that. I would still say it’s much cheaper here.”
I’ve changed other spending habits too. Yes, we still eat out, but the goalposts have shifted. We support the places that used to offer quick “cheap” family meals far less than we want to. No more popping out to the local Turkish and Greek places that I love when we can’t be bothered to cook.
And train travel into London has gone up almost a third in eight years.
Everyone has cut back. We’ll hang out at one another’s houses more instead of going out for coffee or wine. I’d say we’re still winning out in that respect compared with London, as there’s more outdoor space, whether someone’s garden or the beach. I don’t think anyone regrets moving here, but there are some who’ve been called back to the office for a day more than they’d hoped, which takes its toll financially and emotionally.
My advice to anyone looking to move out of London is to do their homework. The cost of accommodation no longer gives the full picture of the cost of country living.
But, for now, we feel lucky to have moved when we did, and grabbed a little patch of the good life. My husband jokes that he will retire to London. Maybe if I give up my fourquid lattes he’ll be in with a chance.