City folk do like to be beside the seaside

City dwellers are flooding to the coast, pushing up prices and quickening the pace of property sales. According to Rightmove, which looked at 120 coastal areas around Britain, the number of urbanites searching for homes by the sea has more than doubled since before the pandemic. Meanwhile, asking prices have risen by 7% since 2019, outpacing the cities’ average of 5%. And while homes were once expected to change hands in 71 days, this has shortened to 51 days. But some are moving in the opposite direction. While enquiries from city folk to live by the sea have risen by 115%, those fleeing the other way have risen by 36%. The Times (£)