The Cornish property market

For centuries the rugged Cornish landscape has survived the passage of time, unspoilt and unsurpassed. The county is home to more than a third of Britain’s beaches providing mile after mile of breathtaking coastline shored up by awesome cliffs. A spectacular backdrop indeed, and one that has cemented Cornwall’s position as one of the country’s most desirable places to live.

For many people Cornwall remains a mystical kingdom – a tiny corner of England where the past is forged into the living landscape creating an endlessly changing tapestry of rural life. It is this idyllic image that has earned the county its reputation as a coastal paradise – a coastal paradise now much in demand by property buyers from within the region itself as well as throughout the rest of the UK and overseas.

Once the domain of bargain holiday hunters, Cornwall is now quite simply the smart place to be seen – a chic outdoor playground on the one hand, yet an historic, captivating and romantic home on the other. Recent years have seen the county’s fortunes transformed thanks to a series of sound and sympathetic economic

developments designed to make the most of its natural assets. The Eden Project near St Austell has been dubbed “the eighth wonder of the world” with the new National Maritime Museum in Falmouth also winning accolades and admiration.

The county is prospering and that feel-good factor is clearly being reflected in the housing market. Once the place to have a second home, Cornwall is increasingly being put right at the top of the list by buyers seeking to improve their quality of life and raise their families in a safer and more healthy environment. It is a trend that is clearly illustrated by the fact that less than five per cent of the 232,500 properties in the county are now being used as holiday homes.