Capital buyers accounted for 7.7% of all homes sold outside the city during the first half of this year, says the estate agent.  

Higher inflation and rising interest rates meant that the average London leaver spent £429,800 on 32,600 homes they bought in the first six months of the year, just over £60,000 less than those who left the capital a year ago.  

This has meant a rise in smaller properties purchased, with 37% of Londoners buying a one or two-bed home, up from 33% last year.  

Londoners who left the city in the first half of this year are down from 7.9% in 2021 and 2022 but, but above the five-year pre-Covid average to 2019 of 6.9%.  

First-time buyers, the most sensitive group to rate rises, made up a record 30% of buyers who traded London for another region in the country, up from 27% last year and jumping from 12% a decade ago.   

Also, FTBs are moving further to secure bargains. The average FTB leaving London travelled 25 miles from where they lived to find their new home, up from 23 miles last year and 14.3 miles in 2013.  

The survey says: “This move to a more affordable area outside the M25 is set to save a typical FTB with a 15% deposit, £8,656 in mortgage payments each year.”  

Overall, the report says that a record 85% of London leavers moved to a more affordable area, which is set to save mortgaged buyers a total of £357m each year in annual mortgage payments this year.  

This compares to £157m savings for those who left London in 2019 when mortgage rates were lower, the study says.  

However, it adds that leaving London is also a way for households to reduce, or even pay off their mortgage debt.   

The survey points out that so far this year, 18% of London leavers bought their new home without a mortgage, up from a low of 14% in 2020.  

London leavers are also increasingly trading the South East for more affordable parts in the East of England.  

The report says 39% of Londoners moved to the South East so far this year, down from 45% last year. Meanwhile, one in three London leavers headed to the East of England this year, up from 28% 12 months ago.  

Hamptons head of research Aneisha Beveridge says: “This year, London outmigration has increasingly been driven by need over want as higher mortgage rates reduce buyers’ budgets, pushing them in search of smaller homes in more affordable areas.   

“Most of these movers still look to retain strong links with the capital. This has supported values of smaller homes in some of the more affordable towns within an hour’s commute of London.”  

Beveridge adds: “Looking ahead, the likelihood that mortgage rates will stay higher for longer may keep the pace of London outmigration up.   

“We’re also reaching the point where a large number of households who bought a home at the peak of the London market between 2014 and 2016 might be looking to move over the next few years.   

“And with property prices in parts of the capital lower today than when they bought, trading the city for a cheaper area outside the M25 might be the only option for those needing to upsize.”