Known primarily as a popular UK tourist resort, Bournemouth has a lot to offer potential new home buyers. With its historic architecture, bustling night-life and excellent amenities, unlike many other coastal towns in the UK, the town has a good economy and thriving all year round. Situated on the Dorset coast, along with Christchurch to the east and Poole to the west, Bournemouth forms what's known as the South East Dorset conurbation which has a combined population of approximately 465,000.
Bournemouth itself has a population of around 183,000 which is swelled by an estimated 4.7million visitors during the tourist season. Those tourists come for the seven miles of sandy beaches and the average 7.7 hours daily summer sunshine. Yet, more people are choosing to permanently live in Bournemouth with the population predicted to grow to 225,000 by 2037. In 2015, Bournemouth, along with Poole, was ranked as one the top fifty places to live in the UK Quality of Life Index.
It has excellent transport links elsewhere with trains from Bournemouth Station taking 95 minutes to reach London Waterloo. Bournemouth Airport has flights to a number of European destinations including Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy. Major roads give easy access to cities nearby such as Southampton and further on to the M27 and M3.
The variety of properties available to purchase in the town is another attractive aspect of house-buying in the Dorset coastal town. Bournemouth is both a well-known location that attracts older buyers looking to retire to the coast while it still has a youthful demographic courtesy of its university and night-life.
The wide choice of properties available mean it's possible to buy a one-bedroom apartment for just over £100,000. These flats can be ideal for first-time buyers or those wishing to downsize. Otherwise, if you have a little more money to spend, the town also has multi-million pound properties for sale. In July 2016, the average price of a home in Bournemouth was £262,600.
A number of new build homes are in prime coastal locations that have impressive sea views. For investors and the buy-to-let market especially, Bournemouth as a university town, has a ready supply of students looking for rented accommodation. You'll often find properties described as holiday lets or holiday rental apartments as they can be ideal as second homes by the sea.
Other reasons to be interested by Bournemouth include its low unemployment, higher-than-average life expectancy rate and wages as well as good broadband speeds. There are a good number of well-established and respected grammar schools, colleges, academies as well as high schools in the area and, of course, Bournemouth University which has around 17,000 students. Bournemouth is set to be a location that's only going to grow in popularity in years to come and as such for new home buyers, it may be wise to buy a new house here sooner rather than later.