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Meghan and Harry’s Cotswold Life Highlights Rural England’s Affordability Crisis
Confirmed
In Short: The relocation of Meghan and Harry to the Cotswolds, a region popular among wealthy Americans, highlights the affordability crisis and increasing property prices that are pricing out locals.
The one that prices out locals Meghan and Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex, have relocated to the UK as non-working royals and most interestingly, it’s believed that they are basing themselves in the Cotswolds, where they lived as newlyweds between 2018 and 2019.
Last year, Savills said the proportion of North Americans buying Cotswold properties above £1.5m quadrupled from its long-term average of 3.5 per cent to 13 per cent. In March, the Cotswolds office of The Buying Solution, an agency which specialises in properties over £2m, said they had already recorded a 50 per cent year-on-year increase in American clients since the start of this year.
A friend whose family used to live in the South Cotswolds said their former family home was flipped by wealthy outsiders who then sold it at a price unaffordable for locals. What about the homelessness emergency that is playing out in rural communities?
What's confirmed
- The one that prices out locals Meghan and Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex, have relocated to the UK as non-working royals and most interestingly, it’s believed that they are basing themselves in the Cotswolds, where they lived as newlyweds between 2018 and 2019.
- Last year, Savills said the proportion of North Americans buying Cotswold properties above £1.5m quadrupled from its long-term average of 3.5 per cent to 13 per cent. In March, the Cotswolds office of The Buying Solution, an agency which specialises in properties over £2m, said they had already recorded a 50 per cent year-on-year increase in American clients since the start of this year.
- A friend whose family used to live in the South Cotswolds said their former family home was flipped by wealthy outsiders who then sold it at a price unaffordable for locals. What about the homelessness emergency that is playing out in rural communities?
What's still developing
- And then, last week came reports that Meghan had been spotted at Soho Farmhouse, an outpost of the exclusive private members’ club Soho House which functions as a luxury Cotswolds retreat.
- This looks especially perverse given an increase in second homes in the Cotswolds means around one in 10 properties are often vacant, according to the Office of National Statistics.
- Pravina Rudra: Rich Americans love their version of England.
- Talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres moved there in 2024 with her wife, actress Portia Rossi, for a “simpler way of life”.
- Mayors across England are poised to gain the authority to impose an uncapped "overnight visitor levy" on hotel and accommodation stays, with ministers set to unveil full details on Thursday (10) Tourists cross the road in Bibury, in a region known as the Cotswolds, north west of London on August 27, 2026.