Beach hut owners fury as rich tourists push out locals with £50 shacks sold for £450k
Beach hut owners have seen their investments shoot up in value.
Beach hut owners say they are furious as they claim rich tourists push out locals with shacks originally sold for £50 now selling for an eyewatering £450,000.
In recent years, the owners of beach huts have found their small investments on the coast multiply by 1,400 percent.
Families are now sitting on 'goldmines' which have shot up in value from £50 to £70,000 - with some going on the market for up to £450,000.
And to make some extra money, many are renting them out to tourists to use while on holiday in their seaside town.
Last year in Dorset, five huts went on the market at the same time - two for £450,000 each and the other three for £440,000, £430,000 and £395,000.
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That is more than the price of a four-bedroom house in many parts of the country. The average house price in the UK is £282,000.
But these small beach huts often don’t even have running water and mains electricity. Some may have a communal block with toilets and sinks.
But locals are blaming rich tourists, saying second homeowners and holidaymakers buy a beach hut and only use it for a few weeks a year, pushing up the prices and making it harder for people living in the area to enjoy.
Nicola French-Doyle purchased hers in Whitstable for £50 in 1999 - and it is now worth a staggering £70,000. The 59-year-old lives just down the road but said one problem had been tourists buying them and barely ever returning.
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The gardener told Mail Online: “It was just £50. It was certainly not cool or trendy back then. It was a nice place to just chill out back then and it still is and for £50 it was a bargain. It's incredible to think what it is worth now. It's a little goldmine I suppose.
“It's so expensive for locals. It's a shame there are not more of us. I got a discount all those years ago for being local but now they are not offered.
“There's a lot of people from London and other tourists who have come and bought them and then the novelty wears off. I think they think it's probably easier than it is and they do not know the hard work that is involved.”
Victoria Russell’s beach hut in Goring was previously owned by her aunt, who bought it with a friend for £50 in 1957. Although she says she “would never” let the family heirloom go, she believes it could fetch upwards of £50,000.
