UK seaside town named most affordable place to buy a home set for £20m revival

Fancy a coastal getaway? It may not be the first on your list, but if you're looking for a seaside escape, one town down on its luck might be your most profitable option.

Grimsby, Lincolnshire is the UK's most affordable seaside town for homebuyers, with an average property price of £177.9K. With prices lower than any other coastal location, Grimsby also boasts the lowest deposit requirement at £35.6K and monthly mortgage payments averaging £791.

House prices in the UK have surged nearly 10% over the past year, making budget-friendly seaside homes increasingly elusive. A study by Housebuyers4u aimed to pinpoint the most cost-effective locations for seaside properties across the UK.

The research centred on average house prices for typical coastal homes, which served as the foundation for estimating a standard 20% deposit. Subsequently, monthly mortgage payments were determined using a 25-year term with a 4.5% interest rate to mirror realistic expenses.

Lastly, the number of available listings and their concentration within each town's 1 km2 area were evaluated to illustrate housing supply and density.

Grimsby has long battled with its reputation as a struggling former fishing hub. As local resident and director of Projekt Renewable (PRG), Richard Askam, told The Telegraph: "If the first person off the boat had been called 'Nice', it would have been much easier, but we got Grim."

Those involved in PRG, like Mr Askam, are optimistic about the potential for change. The project aims to highlight local opportunities in the growing sustainable energy sector. RPG's hub opened next to the town's Fishing Heritage Centre in 2023.

Now, the next steps have been taken to give the town a £20m revival, as per Lincolnshire Council. The project, called Grimsby Together, will see £20m invested over a decade, with an emphasis on involving communities in decision making of how and where the money should go.

Councillor Philip Jackson, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Economy, Devolution and Skills, said: "This project is a great opportunity for our town. We are already undertaking one of the biggest transformations in the area's history with the redevelopment of Freshney Place, and this can only be a positive addition to that. Grimsby Together will help shape the future of our town and it is great that investment will be led by the ideas of local organisations and people who are dedicated to improving the lives of residents and visitors."

Grimsby also has a rich maritime history and was once a thriving fishing town. In the 1950s, the fishing town was a global centre for trade.

In May, Garry Crossland, a local maritime author and volunteer archivist of the ABP collection told the BBC: "The architecture of many of the principal buildings on the Port of Grimsby estate replicate those influenced by the railways. This is reflected in the many engineers' drawings that are retained within the archives.

"The most iconic building on the port is the Dock Tower, and of course there are many buildings that were commissioned by fish merchants."

The European Union's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which was adopted in 1983, restricted member nations' exclusive fishing rights to a belt of water 12-nautical miles from their own coastlines, leaving the rest of the waters open to all other member-states.

It also enforced national quotas - limits on the amount of fish every nation could take - to sustain stocks in a North Sea that had been severely depleted by years of overfishing.

Professor Richard Barnes, an expert on maritime law, has said the EU contributed to Grimsby's fisheries decline. According to the professor, fishermen in the town were "victims of their own success" as they caught so much that local fish numbers became degraded.

He added that increased competition through globalisation and joining the EU's common market dealt another blow to local fishing communities like Grimsby.

And it's not just green revamping that's underway in the North Lincolnshire town - Grimsby has ambitious plans to become a go-to filming location for TV and film. It has previously been used by Netflix and StudioCanal.

"Build it and hopefully they will come," Emma Lingard to told Sky News. Lingard, who formerly worked in TV, is a manager at Associated British Ports (ABP), the owners of Grimsby Docks.

"Every producer or location manager that has come to us is saying that London is overpriced. They're finding there are too many other productions jostling for the same space... so they're looking up North."