Archive for March, 2009

The Field property - March 09 - Rupert Bates

Do I apply for the ‘best job in the world’ as caretaker of a paradise island on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef? Or pretend to be a Russian oligarch; ask for a loan of £3.525 million from a major bank looking to post the biggest loss in British corporate history, before getting them to write it off. Then spend the rest of my days shooting, fishing and stalking on 15000 acres of Highland sporting estate.
While the Australian weather narrowly pips Wester Ross, an encounter with a Red Back spider on my last trip down under reminded me the country is home to most of the world’s deadliest species. The deadliest species you are likely to encounter on the Langwell estate at Ullapool is if the flock of North Country Cheviot sheep turn ugly.
The only breakfast cereal in town is credit crunch. Knight Frank has reported prices for prime country houses in the UK fell an average 16 percent last year. Nine percent of the decline – the sharpest quarterly fall on record – was in the last three months of 2008.
“There is still a very limited supply of best in class houses and having found their ideal property, purchasers will be keen not to lose it,” said Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank.
“A house costing millions of pounds is a once in a life time purchase for many. Nobody rings a bell when the market hits the bottom, so those who hang on too long may lose the home of their dreams,” said Sweeting.
Scotland saw the smallest fall, with a drop in average values of just over 11.5 percent. The sale of the Langwell Estate will be a good barometer of the Scottish market. It is being sold by CKD Galbraith and John Clegg & Co at offers over £3.525 million and comes with a west coast deer forest with red deer stalking, a house and cottages, salmon and trout fishing and walked-up grouse.
Robert McCulloch of Strutt & Parker asks if Scottish sporting estates are as ‘recession proof’ as some claim.
“Does trade in the loveliest slices of Scotland continue, unchecked by the pain that has enveloped the so-called ‘real world’?” says McCulloch. In 2007 he says 16 Scottish estates were sold, averaging just over 4,300 acres and £3.9 million. They all sold at an average premium of 15 percent above the asking price.
Last year 12 estates, averaging 2300 acres, sold for an average price of £5.2 million, at more than a 10 percent premium.
“So far so recession proof you might justifiably say. The statistic that blows apart the myth that this market is immune to the global recession is that in 2007, 16 estates were offered for sale and by the end of the year 16 had sold or were under offer,” said McCulloch.
“In 2008 a total of 26 estates were offered for sale, with just 12 sold or under offer by the end of the year. From 100 percent of estates being sold within the calendar year to 46 percent just a year later, demonstrates that there is no such thing as a recession proof Scottish sporting estate market.”
Estates that sold last year ticked all the boxes. Location, a good main house, an in-hand farm, mixed sport and ring-fenced. Also the buyers were patient, informed and prepared, even with the economy going down with the speed of a homesick mole, to pay a premium for their dream estate.
The unsold remain unsold not just for commercial reasons, but because sporting perfectionists can afford to wait. However remember if a bell does ring to toll the bottom of the market, you will already be too late. Early or late, timing is everything. The early bird may catch the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

TAKE 3 - LISTED HOUSES

BISHOPSBARNS
York
Agent: Carter Jonas
Tel: 01904-558200
Guide price: £1.95 million

This is an Edwardian house just a mile from York city centre. The property is Grade 11* listed and was built by and home to architect Walter Brierley, known as the ‘Lutyens of the north.’ Bishopsbarns has nine bedrooms and sits in two-thirds of an acre, with the gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll.

MORLEY OLD HALL
Morley St Peter
Norfolk
Agent: Strutt & Parker
Tel: 01603-617431
Guide price: £2.95 million

An Elizabethan country house set in 32 acres, the Grade 1 listed hall, with moated gardens, has five bedrooms and there are also three cottages for sale. There are barns and stabling. The grounds also include paddocks and woodland and the property is 12 miles from Norwich.

PLAS YN FAERDREF
Cynwyd,
Corwen,
Denbighshire
Agent: Jackson-Stops & Staff
Tel: 01244-328361
Guide price: £875,000

A Grade 11* listed property, this five-bedroom Welsh house has been fully restored. Features include a medieval dining room. The equestrian facilities include stables and a manege. Plas Yn Faerdref is just over five acres in total, while another eight acres may be available by separate negotiation.

TAKE 3 – FARMHOUSES

Moat Farm
Milden
Suffolk
Agent: Carter Jonas
Tel: 01787-882881
Guide price: £1.75 million

This is a timber frame farmhouse with a moat with 15 acres of land, including a grass airstrip and a hangar. It also has a tennis court and swimming pool. The farmhouse has three bedrooms and there is a five-bedroom barn and two holiday cottages. Moat Farm is six miles from Sudbury.

WESTERN FARM
Lower Swell
Somerset
Agent: Jackson-Stops & Staff
Tel: 01823-325144
Guide price: £825,000

A restored 16th century farmhouse, surrounded by open countryside and 10 miles from Taunton. The house, with cross beamed ceilings in the sitting room and dining room, has six bedrooms and just over two acres, including a kitchen garden and an orchard.

EAST OTTERBURN FARMHOUSE
Otterburn
Northumberland
Agent: Smiths Gore
Tel: 01434-632404
Guide price: £450,000

This Northumberland farmhouse is Georgian, south-facing and double fronted. The property has large gardens to the front and rear. There is an adjoining single storey steading with planning consent to create a separate two-bedroom cottage. The house, 30 miles from Newcastle, is on the market for only the second time in its history.

COUNTRY ESTATE OF THE MONTH

GOLDEN GROVE
Llandeilo
Carmarthenshire
Agents: Cooke & Arkwright and John Francis
Tel: 02920-346346 and 01267-233111
Guide price: £1.5 million

A stately mansion in Wales, Golden Grove dates back to the 16th century and was owned at the turn of the 19th century by the Cawdors. It has 100 acres including parkland, pasture, woodland, gardens and an arboretum. The Grade 11 listed mansion extends to 59,000 square feet and, if not a huge private house, could be a country house hotel, a business or leisure complex, or a new residential development. The property is set high on a hillside with views across Golden Grove valley to Drysllwyn Castle in the west and Dynefer Castle in the east. There is also a stable block and a listed lodge. Major refurbishment is needed and it has recently been used by Carmarthenshire Agricultural College. Golden Grove is an hour’s drive from Cardiff.

PROPERTY OF THE MONTH

ABBOTS WORTHY HOUSE
Abbots Worthy
Hampshire
Agent: Strutt & Parker
Tel: 01962-869999
Guide price: £2.95 million

This house is in the Itchen Valley two and a half miles from Winchester and close to the rivers of the Itchen and the Test. It has 10 bedrooms and there is also a three-bedroom staff flat.  A Victorian mansion, the house is a bit of an architectural mix with both Tudor and Georgian facades, Abbots Worthy House needs some work. It was originally built for £9000 as a new parsonage in 1834. The property has just over 12 acres, with a brick and flint boundary wall. The grounds, screened by belts of mixed woodland, include a courtyard, gardens, with a vegetable and flower garden, and an orchard. There is also a tennis court and swimming pool.

WRECK OF THE MONTH

Wellwick House
St Osyth’s
Essex
Agent: Fenn Wright
Tel: 01206-763388
Guide price: £330,000

Wellwick House is in the conservation area of St Osyth’s, opposite a deer park. Total renovation is needed on this six-bedroom property, which sits in a third of an acre. The front of the house looks Victorian, but old timbers elsewhere in the property suggest earlier origins. There is an adjoining building plot with planning permission for a house which is available separately, with a price not yet set. You know it is in a bad way when the agents urge prospective purchasers not to bring their children to viewings for safety reasons.

BUYING TIPS

Tracking farmland values back to 1970, it is clear that they are consistently more closely aligned to wheat prices than the broader economy. After a period of volatility the outlook for wheat is bullish so farmland should be well-placed largely to defy the downward recessionary pressures currently afflicting the rest of the property market.
Potential buyers should bear the following in mind:
Keep an eye on the market – property that was available but failed to sell last year could fall in price or be open to negotiation.
Don’t let detail jeopardise a deal – remember, you set out to buy a farm or estate not a chandelier or pair of curtains.
Be flexible on timing - it’s crucial to exchange quickly, but be flexible on completion. A long completion can often unlock a sale or make you the preferred bidder.

David Cross, Savills

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