Cottage demand collapses as buyer interest falls 32%

The dream of owning a cottage in the English countryside is fading fast, new research has suggested.

Zoopla claims that buyer interest in cottages has dropped by 32% since the start of 2023.

It marks a sharp reversal from the pandemic years when buyers were willing to pay a premium for an idyllic rural lifestyle.

The property portal attributes the change to higher mortgage rates, rising living costs and additional taxes on second homes.

Country cottages

Zoopla says the term ‘cottage’ was the fourth most searched term on its website in 2024.

Since then, the trend has “significantly cooled’, it said, with sales agreed of cottages in the first half of this year down 13% on the same period a year earlier.

At the same time, the number of cottages for sale have dropped 9% in the same period.

Cottages in picturesque rural or coastal areas have commanded strong buyer interest in recent years, but the market reality has now shifted.”

The average price of a cottage is currently £321,641, a 0.3% drop in value compared to August 2025.

The drop is in contrast to the wider housing market, which has recorded an increase in average house prices in the past year of typically 1.3%.

The trend is more pronounced in traditional cottage hotspot areas, with coastal and picturesque rural regions such as the Isle of Wight, the Cotswolds and Devon, seeing larger falls in the average value of cottages.

North Devon saw the sharpest decline, with average cottage values down 6.1% year-on-year, dropping to £329,118  from £350,494.

The trend has also hit Cornwall – Britain’s largest single market for character cottages and second homes.

Cottage values in Cornwall dropped -1.3% to £298,182 from £302,203.

Falling prices

Richard Donnell, Executive Director of Zoopla, says: “Cottages in picturesque rural or coastal areas have commanded strong buyer interest in recent years, but the market reality has now shifted.

“Higher mortgage rates, extra taxes for second homeowners explains why buyer interest in cottages is down by a third since 2023.

“Fewer sales and weaker demand is filtering into lower prices for cottages.

“If you’re a buyer searching for a cottage in Wales, Cornwall or the Lake District, the balance of power has shifted your way.

“Competition has eased and it’s more of a buyers’ market. If you’re selling in one of these areas, price against today’s market, not three years ago – that’s what separates a speedy sale from a listing that sits on the market for six months.”