House buyers are still ready to make a two-hour commute as families head out of big cities in search of an affordable family home.

Fuelled by the new trend for hybrid working, buyers are prioritising attractive locations with good schools over a long train or car journey.

Bath is one of the top locations, with buyers lowering their house-price budgets to cover increases in school fees and higher living costs, according to new research by estate agents Winkworth.

“The longer commute of up to two hours seems set to stay, which brings so much more of the country into view,” said Winkworth’s Chief Executive Dominic Agace.

Three-day-a-week commute

Speaking on the latest edition of the firm’s Property Exchange podcast, he added: “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 the branch was now seeing a lot of London relocators looking to move to the city.

Reduced budgets

However, they have reduced their budgets and are looking at houses around the £1.2 million-mark, rather than £1.5 million, 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,” he said.

“About 20% 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 is a safe place to live.

Shortage of the right homes

However, he warned there was a shortage of homes in the right price bracket. “There’s always a lack of supply,” he says. “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.

“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.”