4 ★ FTWeekend 22 February/23 February 2020L
ast year, Bristol was the most
searched-for place on Right-
move outside of London. This
will not surprise Bristolians:
rising demand in the small
West Country city has caused property
prices to jump more than 50 per cent
since January 2014, according to Land
Registry data. And in recent years, with
its multicultural, bohemian feel and
abundance of Georgian and Victorian
architecture, Bristol has become a mag-
netforprofessionalsleavingLondon.
“London has changed. It felt very cap-
italist and work-focused when we were
there”, says Sharmaine Lovegrove, a 38-
year-old publicist who moved to Bristol
with her husband Thomas and their
eight-year-old son two years ago. Bristol
is close to the countryside but feels
urban with great food and music scenes,
she says. The home counties are often
the next move for Londoners seeking
more square footage, but Lovegrove
says that was not for them: “As a young,
creative, mixed-race family, it just
wasn’t an option,” she says. “Culturally
itissodifferent[inthehomecounties].”
They chose an hour-and-a-half com-
mutetoLondontwiceaweekinstead.
Many Londoners have been lured to
Bristol by the fact that their money will
stretch much further — the average
price for a terraced house, at £292,000,
is about 40 per cent cheaper than it is in
thecapital,LandRegistrydatashows.
The Lovegroves were no exception.
Selling their two-bedroom flat in
Herne Hill, south London, for more
than half a million pounds, Sharmaine
and Thomas resettled in a four-storey,
four-bedroom house in Southville — a
15-minute walk to the harbourside
and city centre — for £425,000.
If demand is so high in Bristol, why
hasitspropertymarketslowedinrecent
years? The number of sales in the first
half of last year was 18 per cent lower
thanduringthesameperiodin2016.
Alec Jupp, co-founder of Elephant
Estate Agents, blames Brexit. “People’s
inherent reasons for moving don’t dissi-
pate but I think they’ve been cautious
because of the [political] climate,” he
says. Neal Hudson, director of Residen-
tial Analysts, takes a more pragmaticBuyers from London are dispropor-
tionately represented in Bristol’s prime
areas, most notably Clifton. According
to Savills, they account for just 4 per
cent of sales in Bristol under £750,000,
but20percentofthoseover£1.25m.Knight Frank estimates that prices
for large Georgian properties in Clifton
— home to Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s
grand Clifton suspension bridge — have
increased by 66 per cent in the past
decade. The estate agency is selling
a Grade II-listed eight-bedroom house
in the area for £2.75m. Local estate
agent Lloyd Williams is selling a six-
bedroom house on Pembroke Road in
Clifton for £1.95m.
In St Andrews, a residential area to
the north-east of the city, The Modern
House is marketing a one-bedroom
apartment in a Victorian terrace for
£350,000. The flat is a 10-minute walk
from Gloucester Road, a busy high
streetwithindependentshopsandbars.
After two years, Sharmaine Love-
grove has itchy feet and wants to move
to Gloucester Road. “I grew up on
Northcote Road [a high street in Batter-Nurse Imogen Lloyd, 28, was hoping
to settle by Gloucester Road or in
Clifton, but knew her budget would
not stretch that far. “The market is
really tricky and I was limited with
what mortgage I could get based on
my salary,” she says. Instead, she
focused on Shirehampton, a district
on the outskirts of Bristol some six
miles from the centre, buying a two-
bedroom house in 2018 for £220,000.
Since the Conservative party won the
general election in 2019 — which has
provided a little more clarity on Brexit
— there has been hope among property
agents that the housing market in Bris-
tol will pick up again, and that the
higher sales volumes of a few years ago
willberestored.
Hudson is adopting a wait-and-see
approach. “The housing market is very
seasonal and the next few months will
set the tone for [what is to come],” he
says. There has been a short-term
improvement in sentiment but ulti-
mately, he says, the market will depend
onwhetherthereisachangetomortgage
regulations that are preventing many
people from accessing the funds they
needtopayBristol’shighprices.i/B U Y I N G G U I D E
Fast trains connect Bristol Parkway to
London Paddington in 1hr 10 mins
The city is home to the BBC, Hargreaves
Lansdown, Rolls-Royce and Airbus. Its
financial services companies contribute
£1.8bn to the economy, employing 33,500
Bristol was the UK’s first European Green
Capital in 2015. It welcomed the first-ever
human-waste-powered bus
Whatyou can buy for...
£400,000A two-bedroom maisonette
inMontpelier
£650,000A four-bedroom end-of-
terracehouse in Redland
£2mA six-bedroom, seven-bathroom
housein the heart of Clifton
Moreat propertylistings.ft.comUK propertyLondoners
are lured here by an urban,
bohemian vibe and becausethey get a lot more for their
money. ByRachel HaganA one-bedroom
flat in Sefton
Park Road,
£350,000
through The
Modern HouseSAINT ANDREW’SPembroke RoadSOUTHVILLEMONTPELIERRiver AvonGloucester
RoadThe Clifton
Suspension BridgeCLIFTONBRISTOL
maps news.com/©HERE kmUK
Bristol property prices
Average price, all property types
( ’ ) Bristol
Source: Land RegistryLondon(From left) Bristol’s Harbourside area; a seven-bedroom house in Clifton, £2.75m, Knight Frank; St Nicholas market in a Georgian arcade— Alamy; Luke SheppardHouse Home
Bristol palaces
view: Bristol’s house prices rose beyond
the reach of many Bristolians, he says.
“We are at a point where affordability is
the constraint, stagnating turnover, and
ultimately the market is dependent on
thehealthofthelocaleconomy.”sea] in the 1990s and the area reminds
meofhome,”shesays.
Often London buyers — who typi-
cally have a larger amount of housing
equity than locals — can navigate the
market more easily than Bristolians.FEBRUARY 22 2020 Section:Weekend Time: 19/2/2020 - 17: 56 User: rosalind.sykes Page Name: RES4, Part,Page,Edition: RES, 4, 1