Guide to Portsmouth Living

On this page you will find links to details of property for sale, rental accommodation, shared housing in Portsmouth. Portsmouth is situated on the South Coast of England to the East of Southampton and to the West of Brighton. It is easily reached from the M27 and has become a popular destination for shoppers with the re-generation of the city that has historically had strong links with the navy, its maritime heritage is undisputed.

The sea still plays an important part in attracting visitors to the city, which is now labelling itself as the Waterfront City. The historic dockyard is now a well known visitor attraction, where the tourist can view
HMS Warrior, HMS Victory and the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose of course is the only 1500's war ship left, having been preserved. It can be viewed within its own climate controlled building having been discovered on the bottom of the sea just outside the port where it was preserved in the mud under the sea for more than 300 years.

More recently, shopping has played an ever important draw for visitors, with the building of Gunnwharf Quays with its promenade style layout, there are many famous brand names to be found along with restaurants, cafes and bars, a cinema and bowling alley. On sunny days, it is a great experience to sit outside one of the cafes enjoying a drink looking out to sea, before heading back to the shops.

Old Portsmouth and Southsea also offer bars and cafes and enjoyable promenade walks, along the Millenium Promenade.

Slightly further afield, nature lovers can enjoy Farlington Marshes, where many varieties of bird and wildfowl can be seen.

If views are what you are after, the Spinnaker tower is a good place to start. On a good day when the weather is clear, one can see for more than 20 miles away as far as the Isle of Wight.

Portsmouth has become home to many families not just because of its naval links, but families looking for a city with great amenities and open air spaces, not to forget the beach and the sea. Large firms such as IBM, Zurich insurance and Marconi have drawn people in to work and therefore live in the area. Tourism nowadays however is also playing a large part in attracting people to work and live in and around Portsmouth. There is also a large student population that attend Portsmouth University, once Portsmouth Polytechnic, its business related courses are well regarded.

Students are relatively well catered for in Portsmouth, there is much to see and do, and leisure time by the sea is generally a favoured pastime. There is generally quite a lot of housing for students in the areas such as Fratton and Southsea, where a student can rent a room in a shared house of around 4 or 5 people for about £200 to £250 per month.

At the other end of the scale, there are penthouse apartments for sale in Gunnwharf Quays with price tags of around £1.6 million. More realistically priced properties can be found in Southsea and Old Portsmouth, for around £500,000 for 3 storey townhouses.

There are more affordable properties to purchase in 1960's and 70's blocks of flats quite central to the old part of the main city centre going under the hammer in the region of £80,000. It is quite apparent that the more attractive areas to live in Portsmouth now are near Gunnwharf Quays. For families however, the more open spaces that Fratton and Southsea can provide are more favoured. East of Mile End Road, there are family houses to  purchase for reasonable prices, however the majority of property types in Portsmouth are terraced houses built in the Victorian era.