The area that brought us clotted cream, smugglers’ tales and a sense of being away from it all is soon to get the first bespoke surf pods for the urban surfer. The City dude who arrives at the weekend to catch the wave and who just wants a bed for the night, plus a locker to stash his board and wetsuit, will have his own micro home tailor-made.

That, according to a research report from Knight Frank, is just one of many new niche markets being created in the West Country.

Not only is the region the most popular area in the country for owners of second homes — 27 per cent of all second homes are here — but the population is likely to grow by another 529,000 by 2021. The remoteness of the West Country is being nibbled away as more “distance-workers” and weekenders fly in and out through airports that now link the area to other parts of Europe.

Newquay is in the vanguard, having transformed itself from a fishing village into the capital of the surfing scene, with 11 sandy beaches stretched over seven miles. Its more recent negative image as the stag night and binge drinker’s favourite is now being tackled as it actively seeks inward investment. Inevitably the area around the town will have the biggest changes. “We will launch these surf pods soon, starting with prices of £99,950, with funky pull-down beds, balconies, lots of glass and steel, car parking, shared washers and dryers downstairs and a locker each for the boards,” says Miles Kevin, of Knight Frank in Exeter (01392 848844).

Forty-five of the micro units will be built in a three-storey building, with underground parking, on the site of the Cumberland Hotel in Newquay. The pods will range in size from 330 sq ft to 540 sq ft. Most will be studio flats but the bigger ones will have a separate bedroom. Work on the pods, designed by a local architect and being built by a local developer, P. S. Developments, should start this summer for completion next year.

“We are aiming at the guy in Canary Wharf who wears a suit all week, sees on the net that the surf is up on a Thursday, books his flight and comes down for the weekend,” says Miles. “There will be a concierge so that the pods can be let, and he will handle handovers. Some parents are buying them for their surfing children. Instead of putting the money in a trust fund, they are buying these as an investment that they can get a letting income from, or use and have some fun.”

New money has already started pouring in to the Newquay area — surfing alone brings £42 million a year to Cornwall. The Watergate Hotel on Watergate Bay has turned itself into the ultimate in beach chic, and that is where Jamie Oliver is opening his new restaurant, Fifteen, in May. A development called The Beachcombers, designed purely for second homers (where the beds are already made up before you arrive), is up and running. Rick Stein’s empire is just around the corner in Padstow. On the lip of the most famous beach of all, Fistral, where international surfers come to compete, is another new boutique development, 270 North. It contains 14 flats with grandstand views priced at £235,000 to £525,000 (Strutt & Parker, 01392 215631).

But it is second-home owners, smitten with the cliffs and coves, who are bringing the biggest changes to the West Country. According to Knight Frank’s research, they are getting younger, often arriving now in their 30s. “Over the last two years the average age of the second-home buyer has dropped from the fifties to the forties and even into the thirties,” says Ben Standen, of Jackson -Stops & Staff in Truro (01872 261160). A five-bedroom house in an acre can be bought for £650,000 to £850,000.

He adds: “There are more affluent city buyers willing to fly down to Exeter, Plymouth or Newquay, and more people coming from Essex and using Stansted. Some make their money, sell up and move down here to start new businesses. It is all very entrepreneurial now.”

Knight Frank reports that passenger numbers at Exeter airport rose by 50 per cent last year, and at Plymouth by 31 per cent.

The long-running battle to save the night sleeper from Penzance to Paddington was won at the end of last year, which is a relief to those who want Agatha Christie-style glamour on their commuter journeys. “I use it myself,” says Standen. “You travel up overnight, have a shower at Paddington, hit the ground running in London at 9.30am, work all day, have dinner with friends and catch the train back at 11.30pm and see all the old familiar faces. It is a fun thing to do, more enjoyable than sitting in an airport lounge, and you arrive in the heart of London.”

The cities of the West Country are getting younger too. To cater for the growing population a huge number of flats are being built — 84 per cent of the schemes on the market in Bristol are flats, according to Knight Frank, which says that there is a real shortage of new family houses in city locations.

On top of that, there is a huge rise in the student population in the higher education institutions of the South West.

Knight Frank says that student numbers have risen by 29 per cent in Exeter and by 72 per cent in Bath in the past decade, which will lead to a huge shortfall in student accommodation. “We are increasingly seeing institutional funds, regional developers and buy-to-let investors moving into this field,” says Simon Scott, of Savills’ student accommodation (020-7016 3762).

The big wave has reached the West Country.

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