Leigh on Sea Property!

March 16, 2015 by Rob Kahl

This weeks blog has got to be the easiest ever. The Times, no less, have done all of the work for me!

On Monday 9/3 they published a list of the 30 best places to live in the UK and I was delighted to read that Leigh on Sea was at number 4.

All of us at Scott & Stapleton are obviously biased and together with leigh-on-sea.com, we have been singing the praises of Leigh for years. But, when a national newspaper held in such high regard as The Times read by 400,000 daily, plus a huge online presence, puts little old Leigh so high on the list, you have to sit up and take notice.

It was interesting that the article came out on the Monday after what seemed like the first really sunny weekend this year; on the Saturday it seemed like the whole world and his wife were in Leigh Broadway and the Old Town. At one point in the office we had clients queuing outside the door to register their details looking to either purchase or rent a property in Leigh. Applicants from as far afield as Devon, Wales and Manchester registered to relocate to this area.

I believe that these articles are hugely influential and can only be amazingly positive for our town but it is also nice to remind us to appreciate what we have got. It is easy for to take for granted everything we have and not to notice or take advantage of everything that Leigh has to offer.

In the article it was interesting that Leigh on Sea was the closest to London in the top 10 and the fact that our commute into the City was so easy was duly noted. Other things that were commented on were the excellent schools, with the recent 100% GCSE grades at Southend High School for Girls and Westcliff High School for boys highlighted. They were the boring bits.

The other more lifestyle type of attractions were Southend Pier being the longest pleasure pier in the world and the fact that you can eat jellied eels or potted shrimps overlooking the estuary.

We will have to see how much of an affect this all has on house prices. Last week I mentioned that it would be inevitable that house prices rise as there really is not the room in Leigh for new, large developments and surveys, reports and the latest article in The Times will surely only mean that prices rise further.

Hopefully, we will be able to keep our local village feel and obviously, we don't want prices to rise too dramatically. It is important for people who work locally and perhaps don’t earn as much as city workers, or first time buyers to be able to afford to buy or rent property in the area.

One of the great attractions of Leigh is the diversity of people who live here. We now have a good size student population with Southend University nearby and people just starting out on the property ladder. In addition, there are young families interested in the huge variety of excellent pre-schools, older families keen to get children into the local High Schools or recently re-vamped Belfairs and a good size population of retirees coming down for the bracing sea air. It is important to accommodate all of these different peoples criteria to keep that diversity.

With the average family house in Leigh at £400,000, bungalows at around £250,000 and one bedroom flats starting at around £150,000 we are still within the affordability reaches of most people.....well.....just!

Ths article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton Estate Agents
Tel: 01702 47 11 55