Home buyers move to city centres as recession bites - Telegraph

Home buyers move to city centres as recession bites - Telegraph

Katherine Williams loves South Molton. At the age of 23, she has bought a little three-bedroom semi in this market town on the southern edge of Exmoor. As a first-time buyer, she stayed at her parents’ remote farm on the moor until she had saved enough for a deposit. She bought in town because she likes the buzz of the shops around her, won’t feel isolated in winter but can still nip into the countryside whenever she wants to. It is a place where you can buy local cheeses and organic meats, and where soon enough everyone will know your name.

Unlike other towns which have been badly hit by the recession, South Molton is surviving well, never better than on the magic day of the year when it turns into a winter wonderland with a Christmas market, children’s lantern parade, carol singing in the square, hot air balloons and a fairground. “It isn’t feasible to live up on the moor and do a steady job in winter because we get snowed in regularly on my parents’ farm,” says Katherine. “As a schoolgirl, I would miss a week to 10 days at a time.”

She is part of an emerging trend for people to move into the more successful towns rather than stay in villages. Half the buyers in a survey of Smiths Gore agents are downsizing, very often away from the countryside. “In Yorkshire, buyers are keen to avoid the lengthy commute into the cities and are moving from the outlying villages back into towns,” says Andrew Turner at Smiths Gore.

“There has been a real push from employers to get people ......