The unprecedented demand for open space

- Fri 19 Jun 2020

Having been forced to put life on hold for weeks on end has changed the mindset of thousands of people all over the country, the continent, and most likely the world. As a result of being stuck inside the confines of your home, people have had more time than ever before to assess what it is they want, and now we are seeing exactly what that is – more open space!

Those of us living in the West Country are more fortunate than many other areas of the country with both open countryside and stunning beaches, two of the most used searches for home buyers following the easing of the lockdown. These features are ensuring that our region remains in high demand not only from people already within the region making a change but also those seeking to escape the urban environment they are currently in.

Having received thousands of enquiries over recent weeks, the most common reason for wanting more space appears to be able to enjoy their garden more, whether it’s to create a vegetable garden, enjoy more activities with the family and wanting larger outside dining spaces, largely related to the warm weather, supported by the sharp increase in sales of garden furniture and BBQs.

More specific requests include people wanting to start smallholdings, catteries/kennels and the more frequent request to have fewer neighbours! Regardless of the reason, those people that are perhaps looking to reduce the amount of land they own or have to tend to, could well see themselves benefitting from the increased demand and therefore could be incentivised to move sooner rather than later.

Other trends in searches that have been widely reported include parking and garaging, being closer to the coast, and to move from inner-city locations to the suburbs and village locations.

The increased activity has meant each of our 30+ offices across the region have been kept extremely busy, as have our Customer Experience Team who work 7 days a week responding to enquiries from our online marketing, all of which mean the outlook across the West Country appears to be a bright one.

The unprecedented demand for open space

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