By David Byers.
The pandemic triggered a boom in seven-figure countryside properties — but tens of thousands have since lost that status. Plus, find out how your area has fared.
The pandemic-era rush to rural Britain has gone sharply into reverse, with countryside property values falling significantly while London and its suburbs regain their appeal — a trend Black Brick’s experts saw coming, according to reporting in The Times.
Research by Savills reveals that the number of homes valued at £1 million or more across Britain fell from 736,668 to 673,143 between 2022 and 2025 — a decline of 9%. Rural and coastal areas have been hardest hit: in the southwest, 42% of homes that crossed the £1 million threshold during Covid have since fallen back below it, while similar reversals have been seen across East Anglia, the southeast and Wales.
Tom Kain, buying agent at Black Brick, said the correction came as little surprise. He described the experience of a client who sold his London home during the pandemic to relocate to a remote corner of Devon — only to be called back to the office shortly afterwards. “Why didn’t you just see how Covid went for another year?” Kain observed.
The retreat from the countryside has been driven by a combination of factors: employers requiring staff to return to the office, higher mortgage rates, increased council tax surcharges on second homes — now applied by 71% of English councils — and tax changes affecting holiday lets introduced in last autumn’s Budget.
Camilla Dell, Managing Director of Black Brick, reflected on how pre-Budget uncertainty weighed heavily on prime London buyers during the second half of last year. “It was not helpful,” she told The Times. “My wealthiest client — we had everything teed up, ready to go, and he pressed pause. He said, let’s just wait for the budget. So he did press pause on that. But then the budget happened and we exchanged.”
While prime central London has faced its own headwinds — including the abolition of non-dom status and stamp duty increases — the data suggests a gradual rebalancing is underway, with demand returning to well-connected suburbs such as Richmond, Islington, Beaconsfield and the Hertfordshire commuter belt, where seven-figure sales are once again on the rise.
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