The number of people in London from the UK capital is down since 2013

Stay informed about free updates

Just register to go Residential property myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

The number of Londoners swapping the capital for a country home is the lowest it has been in more than 10 years after a decade of rapid house prices in the UK.

Londoners bought 5.7 per cent – or 57,020 – of homes for sale outside the capital this year, the lowest share since 2013 and almost half the Covid-era peak in 2021, the follow a search by a real estate agent in the Hamptons.

Property prices rose by 26 percent London in the past decade, compared to 39 percent in other parts of the country, according to Hamptons, which analyzed data from about 650 real estate agent and property offices nationwide.

“Capital home owners have not had the housing market on their side in recent years,” said Aneisha Beveridge, head of Hamptons research, adding that “with a trophy home slide out of reach” many have “chosen to stay”.

In addition to higher property costs elsewhere in the UK, Marc von Grundherr, managing director of estate agent Benham & Reeves, said the return to self-employment after the pandemic has kept Londoners in the city- elder.

Londoners left small town homes in 2020 for more space in the countryside, expecting home working arrangements to last. But the end of the epidemic led many companies calling the workers back to the office.

First-time buyers were “the exception”, said Beveridge, who accounted for 31 per cent of Londoners buying homes outside the capital this year – more than 2013’s figure.

The average house in London cost £520,000 in October, according to the Office for National Statistics, although the capital had the lowest annual house price in the country by 0.2 percent.

Beveridge noted that “the high cost and savings required to buy a home in London has pushed home owners to look beyond the capital”.

The most popular destinations for first-time buyers from London were tourist towns with good transport links. Just under half of all buyers in Brentwood in Essex were from London this year, up from 23 per cent in 2019.

Property prices in parts of central London have fallen over the past decade, although the capital remains the most expensive part of the country.

Between 2013 and 2024, prices in South Kensington and Chelsea fell by 11 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, according to property surveyor LonRes. In Knightsbridge and Belgravia, this year’s prices are unchanged from 2013.

Neal Hudson, founder of housing consultancy BuiltPlace, said the rise in rents from 2014 onwards had “swept across the central London market”.

“Production is down significantly and prices are flat or negative,” he said, adding that market expectations for high-end assets were “far from pre-2014 levels.” .

Von Grundherr, a real estate agent, said many of the clients he deals with are Londoners returning to the capital after the pandemic.

By 2021 Londoners spent a record £55bn on housing outside the capital. But von Grundherr says his clients are taking advantage of stagnant house prices, drawn by short commutes to the office and the capital’s cultural attractions.

He says: “We had a couple who sold their house in London four years ago and moved to Hampshire. But they came back in 2023 and bought a house on the back road (where they lived). They paid almost the same price as when they were selling in 2020.”