Two of the best seaside towns in Britain to move to in 2025 are near London

Is this weather making you want to pack up all your belongings, get out of the city and set up in a cute little place on the coast? We can’t blame you. But, of course, we know that London, with its fantastic food scene and world-class culture, is a hard place to leave behind completely. So, a seaside town that’s within easy reach of the capital would be the dream. 

Luckily, the UK is a relatively tiny island and those places do in fact exist. And two of them made it onto the Times’ list of the best seaside towns to move to in 2025. Here’s where you can get the best of both worlds. 

First up – Hove. The Times describes this East Sussex town as ‘far less crowded and chaotic than Brighton with its relentless stream of boozy day-trippers’, but says that Hove’s food scene is beginning to rival that of its more popular neighbour. Locals here can easily get to London Victoria in little under an hour, so there’s no need to quit your city job. 

The only downside? Hove is pretty spenny. The average house price in the area is £547,063, with seafront apartments costing up to £1 million. 

The other highly desirable seaside town near London was Deal in Kent, which is just under an hour and a half away. The paper called Deal the ‘most appealing spot on the Kent coast’, saying: ‘The browsable high street — posh and quirky at one end, down to earth at the other — has everything a high street should, and the town’s sense of community is winning out against the weekenders from London.’

The Times said that high demand means houses here aren’t so easy to come by and prices are relatively high (but it’s more affordable than Hove). If you’re tempted to make the move here, you’ll be looking at an average house price of around £342,000 but, according to the paper, four beds are at least £700,000. 

In Time Out’s guide to Deal, local writer Kate Wickers wrote: ‘Deal’s sedate (yet uplifting) atmosphere that remains its biggest draw’. If you’d rather stay in the city, but still want to check Deal out, Kate recommends wandering around the historic Deal Castle, filling your boots at Deal Town Market, getting brunch at Deal Pier Kitchen, seeing some art at Linden Hall Studio and basing yourself at The Rose hotel. You can see her full list of recommendations here. 

See the Times’ full pick of the best coastal towns to move to in 2025 here.