But now it appears that the once chic beach hut is no longer in vogue.
Six months ago Bournemouth Council in the south of England put 43 beach huts on the market priced at between £65,000 and £90,000.
But despite being given a 21st century look and re-named ‘surf pods’, only seven have sold.
The huts at Boscombe in Dorset, where Europe’s first artificial surf reef has just opened, generated a lot of interest at first with 400 people registering an interest, 100 attending the launch and 15 sales agreed on the first day.
They have been designed by hip British designer Wayne Heminghway, have balconies, French patio style doors, toasters and tasteful curtains but this just does not seem to be enough to attract buyers and a number of sales have fallen through.
It could be that people don’t have the money or restricitons such as no overnight stays with the power being switched off at night, and small 40 year leases are putting people off.
Real estate agents Savills confirmed that it has only sold seven huts and that a number of sales were cancelled.
‘Savills agreed to assist with the launch of the beach pods on behalf of Bournemouth borough council and to remain as selling agents for an approximate six month period.
A review would then take place depending on budgets,’ a spokesman said.
‘A number of sales were cancelled in the weeks that followed due to the lengthy period between this time and the supply of purchase contracts from the council.
Having reached a budget limit for the pods, Savills elected to pass the sales of the pods back to the council,’ the spokesman added.
The council, which wants to raise enough money from the sale of the huts to cover the £3 million cost of the new reef, has now appointed a new estate agent.
‘Leisure services still require a pro-active agent to explore new marketing and sales opportunities which Savills are no longer providing,’ said Roger Brown, the council’s director for leisure.
‘From the beginning we have anticipated that there would be a long period of selling and that is why we have now recruited Goadsby to continue to raise the profile of the pods.
We are received enquiries about the beach pods on a daily basis and expect the launch of the reef will give our sales drive a major boost,’ he added.
