They are expensive to maintain, plagued by tourists and influences seeking picture-postcard holiday snaps and cost more per square foot than houses in some of London’s most affluent neighbourhoods – despite lacking basic amenities such as running water. And yet such is the allure of the traditional seaside beach hut that, amid an otherwise shaky housing market, prices for these modest timber shacks just keep rising.
According to research by Moverly, which provides digital home information packs, the average asking price of a beach hut in England stands at £49,290 – up 43 per cent in the past year. In Dorset prices are up 101 per cent to more than £120,000. Prices jumped 77 per cent in West Sussex during the same period, and in Norfolk there has been a 48 per cent annual growth.
Huts on the south coast can sell for more than £1,100 per square foot – the same amount buyers are paying per square foot for a home in Hampstead
While data like this does need to be taken with a pinch of sand (asking prices may be buoyant, but a property is only worth what a buyer will pay for it), in seaside resorts around the country estate agents talk of runaway demand as the summer holiday season approaches.
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