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It’s not surprising the country markets in the UK are doing badly in the recession.

Mike Yates from Property Vision, the buyer’s adviser and subsidiary of HSBC Private Bank, comments:

“Over the last ten years, the vast majority of property sold in the West Country (0ver £1.5 Million) was to city professionals from London. However, since the recession hit, the area has seen price reductions of up to 35%, and transactions are down approximately 70% in the worst affected areas such as Salcombe and Dartmouth.

The limited number of active buyers in the area are from the South East and the Midlands – mostly empty nesters downsizing to a smaller traditional family house, and those looking for a lifestyle change as well as the few cash buyers who are looking to enter the market as we head towards the bottom. The buyer profile is dramatically different to the wealthy London set who were driving demand for modern and period properties on the coast 18 months ago.

Now the market has restricted and stock levels are low as people choose not to sell. Speculation and market uncertainty means further price drops of 10% - 15% can be expected before we see any increased activity in transactions over the remainder of this year.

Vendors now have more realistic price expectations and are resigning themselves to the advice their agents were giving them 3 – 4 months ago. Some prudent sellers are marketing their properties privately through estate agents as well as approaching companies like Property Vision who have buyers in a position to proceed . This means they won’t have the embarrassment of their home being on the open market and not selling for a period of months and in the worst cases even years.”

Sarah Daly of Property Vision rentals comments:

"Estates in the West Country are a good source of cottage and, on occasion, sizeable statement properties to rent. Other good quality properties have historically been hard to come by as owner occupiers have stayed put and second home owners have retained properties to holiday in them throughout the year.

That is until now. As more people begin to struggle financially we are seeing an increase in affluent house owners succumbing to the accidental landlord syndrome, favouring renting instead of selling. At the same time there has been an increase in people wanting to rent in the West Country, either because they cannot raise the finance to buy, or they think prices will drop even further. The shortage of stock in the area is evidenced by the fact that local holiday letting companies are negotiating with long term tenants. This means people looking for short term holiday lets this summer may have limited choice."