Out of towners: Londoners face longer journeys to work as high house prices push them to emerging 'second commuter belt'

New figures suggest workers have been forced to accept longer journeys, as London house prices push buyers to a new belt of towns and cities in the South-East. 
Costly: London prices have led people to buy further out, say estate agents
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Ben Morgan23 March 2018

The cost of homes in London has helped to create a second commuter belt further from the capital, new research shows .

Traditionally, thousands of people leave London each year to find larger family homes on the outskirts, while also hoping for manageable commutes.

But rising house prices mean many have been pushed further out.

A report by independent estate agents James Pendleton suggests an influx of London-based workers to a new belt of towns and cities in the South-East.

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Prices are now rising fastest further out, with Brighton, Basingstoke and Oxford seeing an average 344 per cent increase over the past 20 years.

That compares with an average rise of 313 per cent in traditional commuter areas such as Woking, Sevenoaks and Guildford over the same period, and a 367 per cent increase in London.

The average cost of a house in the second commuter belt is £319,147 compared with £73,735 in 1998.

In contrast, the average cost of a house in the established commuter belt is £390,000, and £420,000 in London.

Lucy Pendleton, co-founder director at James Pendleton, said: “It’s hugely counter-intuitive to see house prices rising faster the further from London you go, as it runs contrary to the received wisdom illustrated by steep rises in the capital.

“Workers in the capital wouldn’t have dreamt of commuting from some of these outliers 20 years ago but financial realities have forced people to swallow ever bigger journeys.

"The fact that hundreds of thousands of people came to the same conclusion when faced by the same economic challenges is hardly surprising.

“The most worrying diagnosis, however, is that there is a growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots who use their respective wealth to either stay put in London or jump the traditional commuter belt in search of homes they can actually afford.”