Many head to the coast not in search of a new base, but a second home for the warmer months. Where are they buying?

Whether it's rising house prices, a reluctance to fly or long-term predictions that the British weather is set to improve, more people are buying second homes in the UK.

Savills' research shows that in 2006 the number of second homes in the UK increased by two per cent to more than £350,000.

Yolande Barnes, Savills: "Weymouth Bay will host sailing events in the 2012 Olympics, so that may become a hotspot."

This may not to be a large number, but the effect it has on local house prices is considerable.

Many of these are in coastal locations such as Berwick-upon-Tweed, in Northumberland, where prices have shot up 115 per cent in just six years.

Excluding London and south Lakeland, six out of the top 10 locations for second homes are by the sea.

They are: the Isles of Scilly (where 19.5 per cent of homes are second homes), followed by South Hams, Devon (10.9 per cent); north Cornwall (9.7 per cent); north Norfolk (9.5 per cent); Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland (9.2 per cent) and Penwith, Cornwall (8 per cent).

Other coastal areas popular with second home buyers include Scarborough, Yorkshire (6.9 per cent); Purbeck, Dorset (6.9 per cent) and Chichester, West Sussex (5.3 per cent).

"Weymouth Bay will host sailing events in the 2012 Olympics, so that may become a hotspot," Yolande Barnes, Savills Research Director.

This article originally appeared in Savills' Autumn 2007 magazine. For more information about Savills, visit www.savills.co.uk.

The article UK second home hotspots originally appeared on 999 Today