My parents bought a beach hut for £500 and now it’s worth £400,000 – here’s how
A WOMAN whose parents forked out £500 for a wooden beach hut has seen it shoot up in value to a staggering £400,000.
But Sarah Thomas has vowed never to sell the sought-after seaside cabin despite it being worth as much as her house.
Her parents, Jean and Peter Purvis, bought the beach hut at Mudeford in Christchurch Harbour, Dorset, in 1965 using £400 inheritance from her grandfather.
At the time they couldn’t afford to take family holidays and so thought the next best thing would be having a bolthole next to a sandy beach.
Their three children – Sarah, Jane and Rob – grew up having all their family holidays there and did not travel abroad until they were adults.
Hut 178 has remained in the family for almost 60 years, with four generations of them making summertime memories there.
In that time there has been a boom in prices of beach huts at Mudeford, which is now the most-expensive place in the UK to buy them.
Although none of the 360 huts there have running water, mains electricity or showers, they command such hefty prices due to their secluded location.
The exclusive peninsula is cut off from traffic and the only way to get there is a 20 minute walk, a ride on a land train or a short ferry trip across the harbour.
Sarah is the registered owner of the hut after Jean died in 2020, although she still shares it with siblings Jane, 62, and Rob, 54.
NOT FOR SALE
And although they could sell the hut tomorrow and pocket their third of a share of the £400,000, Sarah, 58, said she would never dream of it.
She intends to one day pass it on to her nieces and nephews who she accepts, may end up selling it to help them buy a house in the future.
Sarah said: “We are not a rich family and we most definitely couldn’t afford a hut at today’s prices.
“Mudeford is seen as a rich man’s playground today but there’s still quite a lot of huts here that have been in families for generations.
“We don’t ever think of selling it. We have too many happy memories of it.
“When it passes to the next generation they may want to, then the money could go towards buying houses. But they are in their 20s now and don’t want to sell it yet.
“I always say to my family, don’t ever lose sight of the fact it only cost £500.”
Growing up, the Purvis family lived in Michelmersh, near Romsey, Hants, but spent most weekends and school holidays from April to October at their beloved beach hut.
Sarah, who now lives in West Wellow, near Romsey, said: “My mum wasn’t wealthy, my grandfather wanted to make an inheritance fair so he gave my mum and aunt £400 each.
“My aunt bought a car with hers but, after careful consideration of the cost of family holidays, my mum added £100 savings and bought Hut 178 in 1965.
It’s been a part of our family for all my life.
Sarah Thomas
“I was either just born or not far off when she bought it, it’s been a part of our family for all my life.
“Once the season started, around Easter, we would go every weekend and holiday.
“We’d go down after school on a Friday and often I would go to school with a headful of sand on Mondays because we would get home so late on the Sunday.
“In the summer we would be down there for the whole six weeks and just come home occasionally to pick some vegetables.
“Dad would stay at home in the week, going to work, and then come to join us at weekends.
“Our hut is in the middle of the single row so we have a view of the creek and the bridge and we would be able to see him coming and all rush down to greet him.
“He’d bring us a treat of Coca-Cola and dry roasted peanuts and a litre of Liebfraumilch for him and mum.
“My dad wasn’t a big fan of beach life – the water was too cold and he didn’t like sand in the bed – but mum loved it.
“We formed many friendships over the years. My brother had a gang of sailing and fishing friends he would disappear with for hours.
“Our childhood was before they had showers so we would often go to Christchurch swimming pool for a wash or I would wash my hair under the cold water tap on the beach.
‘WE JUST FELT REALLY LUCKY’
“There’s no running water in the huts. We have a big plastic container and it was always one of our jobs as kids to fill it up from the cold water tap. Thankfully we are close to the toilet block.
“We have a solar panel now but back then we had a little gas light with a wick inside it.
“And we have a gas oven and grill now but mum used to manage to feed us on a grill and two rings, everything was cooked in a saucepan.
“We stopped going every weekend once we got jobs. But I didn’t have my first holiday abroad until I was 18 and my brother didn’t have his until his honeymoon when he was about 24.
“I take a little portable television now if I go on my own, but as children we didn’t feel like we missed out, we just felt really lucky.
“We have grown up with a wonderful legacy to pass on to our children and hope that Mudeford remains the magical place it is.
“There isn’t the same sense of community now as a lot of them have been sold and some are rented out to different people through the season.”
RECORD PRICE FOR A BEACH HUT
The hut next door to the Thomas-Purvis family went on the market for a record £575,000 in September 2021.
The price it sold for has never been revealed but it is believed to be the most expensive hut on the spit.
Although Sarah and Alwyn didn’t have to pay anything for their hut they still have to pay the £3,800 a year in rates to the local council, who own the land.
Sarah said: “The rates are so expensive now. Ours have increased by 15 per cent this year, so we let friends use it and they give us a donation towards the rates.”