Consequently, they are “often not considered by incomers as an option,” says Rachel Johnston, a buying agent with Stacks Property Finders in the East Midlands. But if you are prepared to drive 20 minutes to a station – Banbury, Bicester, Milton Keynes or Northampton – you can buy a lovely slice of rural England. The average detached home in Towcester and Brackley costs £365,415 and £351,820 respectively. “It’s like the Cotswolds without the tourists,” says Johnston. But don’t hang around, she adds, as the price difference between “daily” and “occasional” commuter towns “is eroding year-on-year, which may well be down to the rise of flexi-workers”. As well as improving the work-life balance, flexible working can be a first step towards retirement. Caroline Edwards, a partner with Carter Jonas, based in Suffolk, has several buyers who plan to work from home “and wean themselves off the routine of a full-time office job”, she says. “But there is no demand to be in the sticks. People like to be close to a village or small town and to be able to walk to the pub.”
The increased number of people working flexibly is pushing the London commuter belt further out into the countryside. Over 60% of full-time employees now work flexibly, with less rigid office hours and without the need to travel into the city every day. This working pattern means being near a railway station and within an hour's commute of London are becoming less important factors for such homebuyers. Villages in Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire that are further from railway stations are becoming an option, along with Margate on the Milton Keynes coast.