The bad news is that according to Emoov, Rye has been downgraded to a village but fear not, as we all know differently. The good news is that whilst our town status has seemingly gone unnoticed, the great British public have realised that Rye as a place to live and work is the best location and has been ranked at the number one position nationally.
Emoov is a company founded by Russell Quirk in 2010, self described as a “hybrid estate agency, combining a low-cost online service with support from local agents”.
Emoov, like Rightmove and Zoopla, provide regular reviews and statistics based on market forces which includes their recent Rural Working Index. Here, they looked at 90 different locations across the United Kingdom and scored each location on its suitability for a work from home lifestyle. They considered a wide range of criteria which included broadband speed, home office space, local facilities and things to do, accessibility and how pretty the working environment is.
In addition, and according to some of the user reviews taken from TripAdvisor, Rye is also considered to be both “rural and happening”.
Not to feel left out, Camber featured in one of their polls and also featured well by coming in at the number 20 position as “one of the most affordable top destinations for rural working in the United Kingdom”.
Praise indeed for both Rye and Camber, but let’s face it, we all know how lucky we are to live here on the south coast, particularly now during these unprecedented times, but it’s nice to be reminded of the fact and others may now be tempted to come here to experience what we, at times, might sometimes take for granted.
Image Credits: Nick Forman , Emoov .
This survey/poll/whatever is a puff for emoov, designed to get a company which almost went bust two years ago positive publicity. And it has succeeded.
But it also highlights the ignorance of the company about local markets. Quite apart from being a town from at least the 12th century a modicum of local knowledge would know that Rye’s broadband is patchy, few houses come with an office and off-street parking is a rarity for most of the town! Despite this, Rye is a fabulous place to live, but that’s not what the survey/poll focused on!
What this small ‘study’ of selected towns and villages does show is the importance of local estate agents who have a deep local knowledge which can to be tapped into both when selling or buying a home! Old-fashioned agencies with branches and staff on the ground who know their home market.
And with this in mind, Rye is richly served by Phillips & Stubbs; Rush, Witt & Wilson; Reeds Rains; Consider it Done Anderson & Hacking; and Harris Rigby.
So Rye is a village and Camber is a town! More significantly, 15 of the “top 20 seaside towns” are along the south coast of England, with 2 in Essex and Suffolk and only 3 elsewhere, surely a very unbalanced assessment; the chosen villages are much more dispersed. But whatever Rye’s undoubted problems, the countryside around is beautiful and largely unspoilt.
Andy Stewart is correct with his view on local estate agents giving a better service than online estate agents. When we were looking to buy a property in the local area I-went to view a house advertised by a online estate agents as a three bedroom semi detached house on arrival at the property I was astounded to find the property was a mid-terraced house.
Local knowledge is everything when buying a property.
We had the fortunate choice of being able to live anywhere, and for years Rye was our number one choice and we don’t regret it for a second. The only thing seriously lacking here is food shopping and choice. Thank heavens for home delivery.
Quite right Andrew food shopping in rye must be at the bottom of the list especially weekends. Never mind the new Aldi in Bexhill road is 100% good for shopping and at nearly half the price, I’ve lived in rye all my life couldn’t imagine living elsewhere go west , go east , north and south within a few minutes by car we’re in the country side , can’t be bad straight in at number one.
Great. So now all the Londoners will be greedily eyeing up Rye as a place to move to. There will then follow demands for expensive boutiques and shops selling food stuffs that only chefs like Nigella and Jamie have heard of! Pedestrian crossings and bright street lights will be required everywhere, not to mention a fast rail link to the big City. Thank goodness there’s not that much housing available to purchase in Rye!
Only joking….
The entire top 20 seaside towns have an average score under 2/10 for beach cleanliness – don’t quite understand that. Further, they score the same sub-2/10 for connectivity, which perhaps makes more sense. Overall though, what does a seaside town need to do to make the UK’s top 20? Doesn’t seem like much…