House prices in Salcombe have doubled in 10 years as it overtakes Sandbanks as top priced town

Salcombe has overtaken Sandbanks as the most expensive area in the UK to buy a house as it is revealed that prices in the town have doubled since 2012. 

Salcombe has morphed from a traditional South Hams fishing port to a playground of the rich over the last hundred years, but in just the last ten house prices in the already exceptionally expensive town have doubled. 

In 2012, the average house price in Salcombe was £558,538, 123% less than the current £1,244,025 average pricetag. 

Salcombe wasn't the only town in the top 10 most expensive seaside towns in Britain, with Dartmouth and Kingsbridge making the list in seventh and eighth place respectively. 

Average house prices in the 10 most expensive seaside towns in Britain, according to Halifax analysis:

1. Salcombe, Devon, South West - £1,244,025

2. Sandbanks, Dorset, South West - £952,692

3. Aldeburgh, Suffolk, East of England - £794,492

4. Padstow, Cornwall, South West - £790,847

5. Lymington, Hampshire, South East - £663,474

6. Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, South East - £611,816

7. Dartmouth, Devon, South West - £567,985

8. Kingsbridge, Devon, South West - £556,659

9. Wadebridge, Cornwall, South West - £548,669

10. Budleigh Salterton, Devon, South West - £537,681

South Hams District Council leader Judy Pearce has been quoted by the BBC saying that while it is rich in natural beauty, Salcombe "does not function like a normal town". 

Ms Pearce, a Conservative councillor for Salcombe and Thurlestone, said the high proportion of second homes in the town "makes life quite difficult".

She said the population surges from about 2,000 to more than 23,000 in the summer months.

"In the winter the town is absolutely dead," she said. "It's like a morgue.

"There is nobody around at all. The lifeblood of the town is stripped out.

"In a community you have a lot of people doing voluntary jobs [but] there just isn't the manpower in Salcombe."

Residents of the South Hams know the problem of high housing prices, with South Hams District Council announcing a housing crisis, with not only sale prices but with rental prices too, with many local people being priced out of the area.