Long-distance London commuters push up local house prices
08-06-2014
By Kate Allen
Commuters And Passenger Trains After Announcement U.K Rail Fares May Increase...Rail passengers stand and wait for a train on a platform at Clapham Junction railway station in London, U.K., on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012. U.K. rail fares will jump as much as 6.2 percent in January, based on inflation
©Bloomberg
London’s strong housing market is pushing up prices in other parts of the country as workers commute ever longer distances in search of cheaper housing.
A growing number of people are becoming “work tourists”, moving farther out of London while continuing to commute to their jobs in the capital, according to an analysis of census data by Savills for the Financial Times.
Areas with more London workers have seen larger house price rises, Savills found.
Lucian Cook, residential research director at Savills, said London commuters were having an impact on house prices in the areas they moved to.
“A much larger number of housing markets are now underpinned by London earnings and by people moving their housing wealth out of London,” he said.
“People are having to accept a longer commute, because they get more for their money and they’re sacrificing weekday quality of life to benefit their family.”
Average London house prices are about two-thirds higher than the UK average according to the Office for National Statistics, meaning that Londoners who sell up and move elsewhere can inject large amounts of cash into other housing markets.
London employers warned last week that rising housing costs were making it harder to find staff and were pushing up wages.
Business secretary Vince Cable last year said London’s economy was “draining the life out of the rest of the country”, and the recovery has widened the gap between London and other UK cities, according to figures published this year.
The capital’s working population remained almost static between 2001 and 2011 according to census figures, yet the number of people working in the capital and living elsewhere rose by 9 per cent in a decade, Savills found.
One in five workers in London – 790,000 people in total – now commute from other parts of the country.
Relatively low-cost towns with good transport links such as Watford, Slough, Southend and Dartford have seen particularly large influxes of London workers, according to the data.
Most workers commuting to London live in the southeast and east of England, but the biggest growth in travellers has come from the Midlands, up about a third over the decade to 2011.
About 67,000 more people commuted to London for work in 2011 than in 2001, adding to the pressure on public transport and road networks.
Some will be part-time London residents, either renting a room or staying with friends for part of the week to mitigate their commute, Mr Cook said.
Technology and flexible working legislation have also made it easier for people to work from home, he added.