Londoners Beat a Path to Bath

When he lived in London, Gary Temprell paid about half his monthly income toward his mortgage on a two-bedroom apartment in the affluent Chiswick neighborhood. Today, he lives in Bath, about 115 miles to the west, where he lives in a similar-size property—and lives mortgage free. “I was paying something like £3,500 [$5,000] a month to live in London, which was a ridiculous amount, considering I could move to Bath and be mortgage free,” said Mr. Temprell, 50, retail director for a furniture company. Three years ago he sold his London property for $900,000 and with the proceeds bought a $325,000 apartment in Bath.

The math of monthly mortgages is a driving force behind a veritable exodus of Londoners cashing in on their homes in the British capital and moving out. And a top choice has been the Georgian city of Bath, perhaps best known as the setting for Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey.” According to the Hamptons International estate agents, almost half of all homes sold in Bath are going to former Londoners, who spend an average of $1.2 million on their new home.

When the London market was red hot, property owners there were thinking to themselves: “If I wait another year, prices will have gone up again,” said Johnny Morris, head of research at Hamptons International. “Now that prices have cooled [Londoners] think it is time to make the big move. And because the gap between house prices in London and the rest of the country is so big, that move is even more tempting.” Bath is decidedly family friendly. “People tend to move to London in their early 20s to start their careers,” Mr. Morris said. “By the time they are in their 30s and early 40s, they start to move out just before or just after they have children, when space, schools and quality of life become more of a factor to them.” Adding to its appeal is a project to electrify the railway line between London and Bath, scheduled for completion in spring 2019. The upgrade will cut travel times between the two cities from the current 83 minutes to just over an hour. Passengers from Bath alight at London’s Paddington Station, which is also one of the stops on the city’s new east-west Crossrail underground line. This means that from 2017 it will be possible for commuters arriving at Paddington to pick up a fast and modern rail service to Heathrow Airport, London’s West End, or the City and Canary Wharf, the two main financial districts. According to Savills estate agents, prices in Bath’s city center rose by 7.9% in the past 12 months to an average $1.57 million. Meanwhile, in prime central London, prices have fallen by 3.4% in the same period and average $7.26 million. The Bath that most people know is the elegant Georgian heart of the city—streets that are globally familiar from the novels of Jane Austen and the raft of costume dramas, from “Les Misérables” to “Vanity Fair” to “The Duchess,” which have been filmed there. Historic homes in Bath include the tall, skinny four- and five-story townhouses, small cottages and the Royal Crescent, a street with 30 townhomes laid out in a sweeping crescent. A two-bedroom apartment in Bath would cost about $700,000, said Charles Everritt, head of residential sales at Crisp Cowley estate agents. A five-bedroom apartment would cost around $2.5 million to $2.8 million. A little farther away, perhaps a 10-minute walk, this price would drop to around $1.9 million to $2.1 million.

Crisp Cowley has the listing for a ground-floor apartment in a Georgian townhouse in the center of Bath. The 784-square-foot property, which is asking $605,000, has an en suite master bedroom, a large living room overlooking a garden square, and a small private backyard. On the high end, Savills has the listing for a former hunting lodge, which measures 3,897 square feet and has five bedrooms. The 2½-acre property includes a three-bedroom coach house, for guests or staff. The asking price is $3.9 million. Beyond the city center, Bath is encircled by picturesque villages. Philip Cobb, managing director of Cobb Farr estate agents, recommends Freshford, 4½ miles from Bath. “It has a very good school, a train station of its own, a village shop, which is a bit of a rarity, and a good pub,” he said. Properties range from two- to three-bedroom cottages, priced at around $500,000 to $640,000, up to $3.6 million, which would buy a very grand manor house with five or six bedrooms. In terms of newly built property, the largest project the city has seen in years is Bath Riverside, by developer Crest Nicholson. Work began in 2011, and over the next 12 to 18 years about 2,000 homes will be built on a 44-acre industrial site around half a mile from Bath’s city center. Prices range from $350,000 for a one-bedroom apartment to $1.78 million for a contemporary four-bedroom, three-bathroom house. There are a few downsides: Bath can be overrun with tourists in summer with traffic all year round. Parking is challenging and few period houses have spaces for cars. Even the grandest properties may only have small, paved courtyards in lieu of backyards. Newcomers also have to adjust to the strict planning regulations imposed upon Bath’s historic houses. Alterations to the facades—from installing double-pane windows to repainting the front door—are often forbidden. Inside, original features like fireplaces and paneling must be preserved. Transgression can result in fines and even jail time. “It can be very tricky,” said Mr. Cobb. “For example, the original room layout must usually be preserved, which means that if you want to add a bathroom or dressing room you may have to sacrifice a bedroom.” Homes in Bath, while attractive, are rarely renovated to the same level as homes in central London, where cinema rooms, spas, silk carpets, glitzy lighting and acres of marble are considered basics. “People [in Bath] want to be very sympathetic to the Georgian houses,” said Mr. Everritt. “When they do up a house, it is not all little sparkly lights running up the stairs.” This article originally appeared on The Wall Street Journal.