Information gathered from estate agents by Alto software has pinpointed the ten places in the UK offering the strongest seaside holiday home investments.
Top of the table sits the picturesque Suffolk town of Southwold, where property values have risen 94% across the last decade, from £231,236 to £448,106, comfortably outstripping the broader market.
In second place, with prices surging 93% from £664,655 to £1,282,565, came Sandbanks in Dorset, the playground of millionaires.
Prices in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, went up by 75%, from £129,363 to £227,022, earning the resort third spot.
Alto, a provider of property management software with connections to more than 6,000 estate agents nationwide, compiled the figures.
To identify the ten places where values had risen fastest over the last decade, the firm first assembled a list of all the coastal hotspots favoured by holiday home owners throughout the UK.
Rental values in those ten spots have risen by broadly similar margins.
Both the methodology and the raw figures behind the list are published in full on the Alto website.
Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson, chief executive of Alto, commented: “Seaside holiday homes can still be a great investment if you pick the right place.
“The best reason to buy a seaside home is to have a wonderful place where you can relax with your loved ones and earn good rental returns when you are not there.
“They can be a fantastic investment if you look at the data carefully and pinpoint where prices and rental yields have grown most over the last decade.
“Southwold narrowly beat the more famous Sandbanks because its percentage rise was greater but all the locations in the top ten would make good investments and will provide a good return in the long-term.
“Prices shot up for seaside homes during Covid as people looked to escape cities for a simpler life.
“There was a correction after that and holiday home taxes in the form of punitive second home council tax charges in some popular areas have also affected the market.
“But global warming is making many parts of Europe too hot in the summer and British coastal resorts are an increasingly attractive option for many holidaymakers.
“Alto data allows agents to analyse long-term sales and rental data, going back decades, to highlight the very best holiday home investment opportunities.”
Built for estate and letting agents, Alto is the AI CRM software ranked number one in the UK, bringing sales and lettings together with property management and client accounting on a single platform.
Roughly 35% of UK estate agents rely on it, and it spares them an average of 10 hours a week on paperwork.
UK’s top performing seaside holiday locations over the last decade
- Southwold, Suffolk: up 94% from £231,236 in 2016 to £448,106 in 2026
- Sandbanks, Dorset: up 93% from £664,655 to £1,282,565
- Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire: up 75% from £129,363 to £227,022
- Croyde, Devon: up 68% from £439,975 to £740,747
- West Wittering, West Sussex: up 63% from £598,788 to £977,282
- Padstow, Cornwall: up 60% from £443,396 to £711,458
- Falmouth, Cornwall: up 59% from £226,217 to £360,332
- Burnham Market, Norfolk: up 56% from £457,050 to £715,452
- Margate, Kent: up 54% from £202,276 to £312,195
- Salcombe, Devon: up 53% from £539,950 to £828,630
