Bath and the rise of the long-distance commuter towns

The 90-minute commute continues to flourish as families head out of London and other cities in search of a home they can afford in a place with good schools and an attractive location, according to leading estate agents Winkworth.

Bath is one of the top locations attracting those prepared to spend more time travelling, with buyers lowering their house budgets to cover increases in school fees and living costs.

On the latest edition of Winkworth’s Property Exchange podcast, Chief Executive Dominic Agace says: “The longer commute of up to two hours seems set to stay, which brings so much more of the country into view. If you're only travelling for three days of the week, then clearly people are happy to spend more of them commuting on those days, enabling them to live in places of outstanding beauty and bring up their families in those areas. Areas like Royal Leamington Spa, Norwich, Brockenhurst in the New Forest and Bath are now destinations for those able to split their time between the office and working from home.”

Matthew Leonard, of Winkworth's Bath office, told the podcast: "We are now seeing a lot of London relocators who are looking to move to Bath with a lower budget, looking at a house for £1.2m rather than £1.5m due to increases in mortgage and living costs, plus the most recent hit of VAT on school fees. People move to Bath for good state and independent schools and the prime addresses are dictated by the locations of the best schools. The Lansdown area is one of the most popular places because of the Royal High School, an independent girls’ school. Larkhall is relatively affordable. Widcombe is attracting young professional families, with good state schools pushing up house prices.

"20 per cent of our buyers are commuters to London, which takes 90 minutes, and Bristol, which takes 15 minutes to Bristol Temple Meads station. Bath has the countryside on the doorstep, beautiful architecture and it is a safe place to live." Matthew added: “There's always a lack of supply. We come across numerous families who've come down with a view to buying in Bath. They've gone into rented thinking that would be a temporary measure, and they're still there three or four years later because the right house just hasn't appeared. And being a relatively small city, a UNESCO world heritage city, there's a limit on how much development can go on. There will always going be an over subscription in terms of those looking for houses.”