On trend: The costs and compensations of commuting

For every 60 seconds further from London a property is, you will save up to £2,250 on its price, according to research from Savills. But when the trade off between time and money means the bigger house in the rural idyll comes with a four-hour round trip attached, is it worth it?

In 2006 Savills worked out that the average commuter price premium was £1,150 per minute, meaning that for every mile or so you moved out of London you paid just over a thousand pounds less for your property.

This meant that, as you would expect, the further from the centre of London you lived the bigger house you could afford, and the country commuters could feel justified in exchanging hours on a train for a bigger house in a rural idyll.

However, over the last few years things have become more complicated. When Savills updated their figures recently they found that shaving a minute from a commuter journey to London now costs £1,300 for the average home, and £2,250 for a detached property, but that living in the sought-after '60-minute belt' no longer pays.

"In 2006 there was a real cost saving associated with living further from the centre of London," says Lucian Cook, director of Savills residential research. "A cheaper property made the higher cost of a season ticket make sense.

"However, lower interest rates mean that the advantages of a cheaper property further out of London for those with a mortgage have, to a large extent, been eroded by much higher season ticket prices."

Longer commutes

But that doesn't mean that everyone's rushing back to the city. In fact they're travelling in the opposite direction. Longer commutes are actually on the rise, with commuters shunning the 60-minute belt, where the average detached house can reach over £600,000, in favour of larger homes in the 60 to 120-minute belt, where average prices can fall as low as £260,000.

Not only do people buying homes further out pay a lot less, but they have not been hit with the same steep train fare rises. This has resulted in an average annual saving for someone moving from a 30-minute to a 90-minute commute of about £2,000.

Atty Beor-Roberts, a partner at Knight-Frank based in their Cirencester office, says that the 120-minute commute hasn't put city workers off.

"Sixty per cent of our buyers earn their money in London. Forty per cent move straight here from London, and 20 per cent have had a cottage down here first and they decide they want to move their main house down here and just keep a flat on in London.

"People round here have always commuted, and over the last 20 years it has increased dramatically, but now it's far more flexible. There's less daily commuting. A lot of people go up to London on Monday morning, work until late, then go out for dinner with friends and stay over, either in their own flat, or in a hotel.

"Then they'll be back in the office early on Tuesday, do another long day, leave London in the evening and work from home the next few days. Because of technology people don't need to be at their desks every day. A lot of people will specifically ask for a property with some sort of annex to work from so that they don't get distracted by the family, and where they can have meetings with colleagues who live in the area."

Best of both

Davina Bell, associate at Knight Frank, who is based in the company's Baker Street office, moved to Six Mile Bottom, a village near Newmarket a year ago.

"I work mainly in London, but I also do a lot of travelling with my job so I'll often be driving to other Knight Frank offices all over the country, where I can log on as if I'm at my own desk. It's very flexible and it also breaks up the week for me.

"If I'm going into London my train journey is an hour and a quarter, but it's two hours door to door, compared with a 20 minute bike ride from my old home in Fulham. It's an easy commute though, and I try to make the most of the time. I can use my blackberry, and, although my train doesn't have wifi I can connect my laptop via my mobile, and I can catch up with my reading.

"It can also be quite sociable. I see the same people every day, and I notice that a lot of people will have a glass of wine or a beer on the way home on a Friday.

"I moved because I was getting married and my husband has a business in Newmarket. But it's also a lifestyle choice. I'm a country girl at heart, and here we have a lovely cottage on an estate, with three bedrooms, a very large garden, and access to walk all over the estate. At this time of year it's still daylight when I get home and I can take the dogs out for a run. It's wonderful.

"I enjoy the odd night out in London with friends, but I wouldn't go back there. I love it here too much."