Margate is new housing hotspot

It is best known for donkey rides, saucy postcards and kiss-me-quick hats. But today Margate is named as a new property hotspot.

Margate, on the Thanet peninsula in Kent, is one of several somewhat unlikely coastal towns that have enjoyed property price booms since 2001 as downshifters, commuters and those nearing retirement search for an affordable home with sea views.

So keen have people become on a move to Margate that an average house that could have been bought for less than ?75,000 in 2001 would now set you back ?136,606.

Latest figures from Halifax Estate Agents also show that in distinctly shabby Hastings prices are 80 per cent up on 2001, to an average of just over ?150,000.

And Dover, which has long been known as the place you drive through - quickly - on the way to or from the Continent, has seen prices shoot up by 73 per cent. The average property price there now is just over ?145,000, despite the bad publicity caused by an influx of asylum seekers.

The upsurge at Margate - where artist Tracey

Emin grew up - is in contrast to trendy seaside spots such as Brighton, where Sir Paul McCartney, Cate Blanchett and Zoe Ball and Norman Cook have homes. Prices in the Sussex metropolis have risen by 50 per cent in the same period, echoing the more moderate increases in London.

Mark Hemingway of Halifax said: "People commuting from the seaside to London, or those with weekend hideaways by the sea, are clearly prepared to pay a premium.

"As City bonuses have now been received for the first time in years,

we are seeing people using them to fund property purchases along the South-East coast, either as main residences or second homes.

"There is a lot of interest in towns with good road and rail links to London. The improved road links from the motorway to Margate have meant that commuting to and from London, or having a second home there for weekends away, is now an attractive option.

"Despite the recent price rises, Margate still remains one of the cheapest areas and we have seen an increase in the number of Londoners buying property there."

Though rises may seem steep in the South-East, they are outdone by other parts of the country. Padstow in Cornwall has seen average prices go up by 144 per cent since

2001. They now stand at over ?267,000 - higher than London. Fowey, also in Cornwall, saw a 121 per cent increase to ?268,212.

The most expensive seaside town in Britain is Sandbanks in Dorset, where the average price of a house is ?386,140.