There was a time when ownership of an elegant country manor was confirmation of a successful career — witness all those Victorian industrialists who ploughed heaps of cash into Robert Adams mansions approached via wrought-iron gates and a long drive through landscaped acres.
In recent times, however, that cachet has dimmed in favour of maintaining a strong foothold in the capital.
It’s not that the concept of an English Arcadia has been out of favour, just that fewer home buyers have been happy to leave the capital and absorb the cost of stamp duty with no prospect of the market picking up to swallow the difference.
That is on the turn, according to estate agents, who say the really smug buyers sensed it a year ago.
Ed Sugden of Savills says: “Our country house department had the best year ever in 2017. This year is proving just as busy.”
He ticks off a number of houses that have sold between £5 million and £10 million already this year. And between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of these prime properties went to London buyers.
“The key difference is that the buyers have not wanted to shout about their trophy homes and these have mostly all been private or off-market sales.”
BY INVITATION ONLY
One of the reasons for publicity-shy buyers is security. One of Sugden’s clients recently paid a hefty premium to avoid the floorplan of the house being published online. But the “invite only”, or private market, is flourishing.
Buying agent Jess Simpson agrees buyers are security sensitive now that everything goes viral.
“Once a house goes online, the progress is there for everyone to see. Vendors would rather test the market first off-line.”
For the right property, it works. Figures from Knight Frank’s buying arm, The Buying Solution, show that 70 per cent of their country house sales were negotiated off-market last year.
STELLAR SALES
Today’s chart-topping country houses — the ones that vendors are prepared to pay premiums of 10 to 15 per cent to secure — are a different breed from before.
Once, the classic statement idyll was a house down a long drive and far from the madding crowds, says Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank who has a 30-year perspective on the market.
London buyers, in particular, want to bring a bit of the capital with them these days. “They don’t want to be completely isolated and they don’t want to drive a long way.
Perfection is a substantial home on the edge of a village, with a good pub that they can walk to,” explains Sweeting.
New-build country houses, which were once looked down upon, are now much more acceptable.
And the country mansion architects are putting up some impressive properties that are architecturally and crucially green, clean and come with manageable running costs. “There is definitely an element of green energy awareness,” says Savills’ Ed Sugden.
For that same reason, more buyers are willing to find a plot of land and an architect.
Then the usual rules apply: no noise pollution, no electricity pylons, no footpaths crossing by the front door and no noxious smells from nearby pig farms.
“Another aspect that is a game changer for this end of the market is that people won’t consider a house — however pretty and regardless of its perfect location — if there isn’t decent broadband,” says Tom Hudson of buying agency Middleton Advisors.
£1.75 million: Cambridge Place at Widcombe just outside Bath has five bedrooms and is built in biscuit coloured Bath stone
Lastly, a stellar country house is more likely to fly off the market if there’s a chance that it might qualify as “mixed-use” in the eyes of the taxman.
It’s not an exact science, but likely that country houses where some of the land or the buildings are used for agricultural or commercial use pay a flat rate of four per cent tax, compared with a general 12 per cent rate for houses worth in excess of £1.5 million.
EXPANDING BANKER BELT
What used to be known as the “banker belt” — countryside within easy access of key commuting towns such as Guildford and Basingstoke — has moved further out.
“Soho Farmhouse has been a major contributing factor to Londoners moving out to the Cotswolds,” says buying agent Jess Simpson. “It’s created somewhere to have a cool social life which doesn’t revolve around being in London.”
Simpson also says the countryside is becoming trendy, citing the rise in artisan rural businesses, shouldered by improved broadband connections.
After years behind the desk in the high-pressure, high-powered job, high earners are leaving the city to get in touch with their creative soul, be that a potter’s wheel or a cottage industry.
“I have a hunch this country house market is also being powered by older people choosing to move out now before any potential political or economic changes set in and take hold,” says Simpson.
“They’ve waited long enough to live the ‘good life’ and feel that now’s the time to make the big move.”