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The number of Londoners swapping the capital for a home in the countryside is at its lowest in more than 10 years after a decade of rapidly rising house prices in the rest of the UK.

London residents bought 5.7 per cent – or 57,020 – of homes sold outside the capital this year, the lowest share since 2013 and almost half the Covid-era peak in 2021, according to estate agent research. which is the Hamptons.

Property prices rose by 26 percent in London in the past decade, compared to 39 percent elsewhere in the country, according to Hamptons, which analyzed data from about 650 affiliate real estate agent branches nationwide.

“Capital home owners have not had the housing market on their side in recent years,” said Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, adding that, “with a trophy home which is not reached”, many “choose to stay put.

In addition to higher property costs in other parts of the UK, Marc von Grundherr, director of estate agent Benham & Reeves, says a return to self-employment after the pandemic has stuck with people -London in the capital.

Londoners are leaving small urban homes in 2020 in search of more space in the countryside, expecting work-from-home arrangements to become permanent. But the end of the pandemic led many companies to encourage workers to return to the office.

First-time buyers are “the exception”, says Beveridge, accounting for 31 per cent of Londoners buying homes outside the capital this year – more than double the proportion in 2013.

The average house in London cost £520,000 in October, according to the Office for National Statistics, despite the capital having the lowest annual house price inflation in the country at 0.2 per cent.

Beveridge noted that the “high income and savings bar required to buy a home in London is pushing many aspiring homeowners to look beyond the capital”.

The most popular locations for first time buyers from London are commuter towns with good transport links. Just under half of all buyers in Brentwood in Essex are from London this year, up from 23 per cent in 2019.

Property prices in parts of central London have fallen over the past decade, although the capital remains the most expensive part of the country.

Between 2013 and 2024, prices in South Kensington and Chelsea fell 11 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, according to property analyst LonRes. In Knightsbridge and Belgravia, this year’s prices are unchanged from 2013.

Neal Hudson, the founder of housing consultancy BuiltPlace, said the tax increases from 2014 onwards “hit the central London market”.

“Turnover has decreased significantly and prices are flat or negative,” he said, adding that the market outlook for high-end properties “is still far from pre-2014 levels”.

Von Grundherr, the estate agent, said many of the home buyers he dealt with were Londoners returning to the capital after leaving during the pandemic.

In 2021 Londoners will spend a record £55bn on housing outside the capital. But von Grundherr said his clients were taking advantage of stagnant house prices to return, drawn by shorter commutes to the office and the capital’s cultural attractions.

“We had a couple who sold their house in London four years ago and moved to Hampshire,” he said. “But they came back in 2023 and bought a house down the street (where they used to live). They paid almost the same price as they sold in 2020.”