Time flies when you’re selling homes and it’s now five years since the property market witnessed huge upheavals during Covid including the much-heralded ‘flight from the city’.

But Rightmove says the huge swing from city to rural and coastal living seen during the pandemic is now firmly over, with that trend now reversed as many seek to return to the smoke as employers re-establish office working and hybrid working recedes.

This trend has real-world implications for agents and their clients. While during the pandemic Cornwall overtook London as the most searched-for area on Rightmove for the first time ever, and the number of home buyers in London looking to stay in the capital dwindled from 59% to 47%.

Now, London is once again the most searched for location on the portal, and the majority (58%) of people living there are looking to stay rather than leave.

Also, the speed at which homes in coastal areas are finding buyers has slowed from an average time of 52 days in 2021, to 73 days this year. The time to find a buyer in London has gone from 63 days in 2021, to 65 days.

Unique circumstances

“Five years on from the pandemic, many short-term trends brought about by the unique circumstances of lockdown have reversed,” says Steve Pimblett, Rightmove’s Chief Data Officer (main image).

“Coastal homes are taking longer to find buyers and price growth has stabilised as more supply has come onto the market, some likely from movers heading back to the city.

“Coastal homes are taking longer to find buyers and price growth has stabilised as more supply has come onto the market, some likely from movers heading back to the city.

“At the same time, fewer people are looking to escape cities, as life has returned to normal, and the debate continues about remote versus office working.”

Nathan Emerson, Propertymark CEO, says: “Directly following the pandemic, many people saw the home working revolution as a potential opportunity to pursue a new or different lifestyle, often away from traditional town and city centres, as there was little need to be present within a physical office location five days a week.

“As time has progressed, substantial numbers of employers are now starting to ask their employees to make a return to centralised office locations, thus reversing the trend of five years ago for many people, and they are choosing metropolitan areas once again where there are likely better transport links and a more competitive jobs market in many cases.”