25
Aug
Upper-end countryside properties
Upper-end properties in rural areas could attract a wide array of
people, from first-time buyers to retirees, with the potential
promise of a quiet lifestyle, gorgeous scenery and a home in
idyllic English countryside.
Market Activity
As for how well such properties are actually selling at the moment,
director of Thompson Wilson Richard Worrall believes that it comes
down to a pricing issue, as is the case with other houses: "It's
the same as with everything at the moment; if something is priced
correctly then you will get multiple interest in it and it will
sell within a reasonable timeframe."
Prospective buyers may also have more properties to peruse in the
coming months and years, as Mr Worrall reported that the number of
houses on the market is "certainly increasing". Those that had gone
into rented accommodation to see how the market had developed now
seem to be coming back to the marketplace to buy, he said.
Mr Worral explained that there are now more people who sold a
property two or three years ago and went into rented accommodation.
With the large sums of money they received from the sale of the
property, they are now coming back in to buy rather than continuing
to rent, he said.
Indeed, there appears to be a good deal of interest in the high-end
property market in general, according to Mr Worral, perhaps hinting
that now would be a good time to make the move and buy a new rural
home: "If you had asked most agents at the beginning of the year
how they thought the market was going to go, I don't think they
would have anticipated the amount of interest and sales that have
been made over the last two and a half months."
He noted that back in June, May and the end of April there was a
good deal of activity and there are still people around that want
to buy and sell such properties.
Where to go?
With so much countryside in the UK it may prove somewhat difficult
to make the choice of where to settle. Mr Worral suggested that in
Buckinghamshire, Beaconsfield is one area that is proving to be
popular at the current time.
Sally Blewitt from Smiths of Newent believes that the whole of
Gloucestershire is quite buoyant in terms of activity. She revealed
that the surrounding areas of Newent are quite popular also. One
property, Three Ashes House on Ledbury Road, is to be found mile
north of Newent and Ms Blewitt noted that it is being used at the
moment for a bed and breakfast and could easily carry on being so
with new owners.
Property type
Mr Worral believes that there are some typical draws for those
looking into high-end countryside property: "It is down to
location, style of property, good school catchment areas and good
road and rail links. [They] are normally the main factors for
people at the higher end of the marketplace."
According to Ms Blewitt, extra bedrooms are also important, while
Andrew Oulsnam, partner at Robert Oulsnam & Company said that
the most demand is probably for character houses, rather than
modern or new houses.
He noted that one four-bedroom Victorian house in Alvechurch is
particularly attractive: "It is in a quite beautiful position with
superb views over countryside, much of which it owns. It does need
some renovation."
Positive property news
It is now clear that the property market actually bottomed out some
months ago, according to Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at
John Charcol. Mr Charcol was commenting on recent Council of
Mortgage Lenders' figures which showed there were 45,000 house
purchase loans in June, worth £5.9 billion. This accounted for
a rise of 23 per cent from 36,500 loans in May. This may provide
people with the impetus they were after to make a purchase of their
dream upper-end countryside property.
