A Northumberland town has been named the cheapest spot to buy a seaside home in England, with locals calling it “underrated” and that “everyone wants to be here”.

A home in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea has an average price of £117,763. One on the town’s seafront is likely to set you back a little more, up to £300,000.

The seaside spot was also recently one of the top trending Airbnb resorts. 

Hazel Steel, 64, who grew up in Newbiggin and has run a sewing and crafts shop for six years, said: “It’s one of the most underrated places in the UK. The bay is south-facing so you get sunlight from the crack of dawn until sunset.

“There are lots of lovely places to eat out and we have events on all the time and all the shops are independent except for the Co-op. There’s a really nice community here and people visit the caravan parks two or three times a year.

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“It’s really down to earth but really creative, house prices are rising because everyone wants to be here. People come here because of the fact it’s a little bit cheaper.

“We get a lot of tourists from all over the world. In the time I have been here, there’s a lot more going on now.”

A short walk to the town centre, which backs only Northumberlands only south-facing bay, reveals lots of independent shops.

Karen Carr, 58, who has owned a craft shop for more than two years and just opened up a sweet shop, described the town as a staycation heaven.

She said: “The town has a gentle flow of tourists from Easter until October. We find that people who come here for a weekend often end up moving because they fall in love with the place.

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“It’s the land that time forgot really. Everyone here is lovely and charitable and what you see is what you get.

“We don’t have tourist prices and local prices, we like to keep it fair for everyone. There is a price parity between here and other seaside towns down south.”

The same study that found Newbiggin-by-the-Sea to be the cheapest seaside location to buy a home found Salcombe in Devon to be the most expensive.

But some worry the town could become a victim of its own success, driving up house prices. There are fears that people wanting to visit the county will want to use the town as a base, creating demand for more holiday lets.

Sheila said: “A lot of visitors are keen to see Newbiggin but quite a lot also use them as a base to see other parts of Northumberland.

“And I think because other towns are saturated they’re coming further south because further north you just can’t buy properties to be Airbnbs – and that’s what’s forcing the prices up, as well as people wanting to live here.”

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