What is your dream home? a red-brick villa in the leafy suburbs or an ultra-modern penthouse in the city? or would you rather head to the country, to be surrounded by well-tended fields, or to the cliffs, for a sea view?
When Steve Brooks, an explorer, and Joanna Vestey, a professional photographer, set off in search of their ideal property, they did so by helicopter, flying around the coast from Norfolk to Wales until they found what they wanted: a five-bedroom, £1.25m house on the Camel estuary, just outside Padstow.
“We were blown away by the beauty of Cornwall,” says Vestey, 37, who accompanied her husband, 47, on part of his journey by helicopter from the North Pole to the South. (Their book Due South is published by Wigwam Press.) in 2005, the couple needed a house for their growing family — they already had Jago, now 6, and Chloe came along a year later — and yearned for a spectacular location.
Eventually, they found exactly what they were looking for. “To get it, you have to be prepared to do some work,” she says. “The house was higgledy-piggledy, so we pulled it together with white clapboard. what you see isn’t always what you have to end up with.”
Although unusual, fly-by viewings are increasingly common when it comes to more expensive properties. But don’t worry if you can’t afford a helicopter. Now the general election’s over, the traditional spring sale season is well under way, which means more properties to choose from. The green shoots of recovery that have recently appeared in London and the southeast may wilt, however, as the government’s attempts to cut the deficit begin to bite. so sellers who have struggled to sell in the past 18 months may be ready to accept a low offer, while properties fresh to the market may be priced to sell quickly. This could be the perfect time to pounce.
To make it easy, we’ve divided our homes into six categories — all you have to do is decide which is best for you. Helen Davies
Seaside
For many of us, heaven is a home by the sea. The trouble is, the best spots command a hefty premium — most notably Sandbanks, a sliver of Dorset shore with some of the highest land prices in the world. Yet Britain’s coastline has many more affordable options, whether you want beaches, sailing, surfing, solitude, sunshine-inspired architecture — or simply a bucket-and-spade resort.
The traditional areas of choice are still in the southwest: the likes of Studland, Salcombe and St Ives attract both lifestyle shifters looking to escape the city and those wanting a holiday home. As a cheaper option, Peter Lane, at Savills’ Wimborne office (savills.co.uk), suggests Weymouth. “It has superb sailing facilities that will host Olympic events,” he says. that should be good for prices.
Spotting a similar rising star on the Cornish coast is harder. Port Isaac, Padstow, Mousehole and Rock are expensive, but St Agnes, where Josh Lewsey, the former rugby-union international, owns a home, has yet to enjoy such recognition.
“It is unknown compared to places like Rock, so it has retained a lot of its original charm,” says Miles Kevin, a partner in Knight Frank’s Exeter office (knightfrank.co.uk)
“Those who stay are often people who holidayed there as children, as well as Cornish locals, giving it a friendly, welcoming vibe.”
Those who prefer blustery north Devon could try Woolacombe, with its superb three-mile sandy beach, rather than pricey Croyde Bay.
There’s no surf to speak of, but the East Anglian coast has long attracted a smart set who make a beeline for Aldeburgh and Southwold. For a low-key lifestyle and lower prices, David Clarke, of Strutt and Parker’s Ipswich office (struttandparker.co.uk), suggests the less crowded villages of Orford and Dunwich, where he is selling a four-bedroom Victorian cottage with coastal views for £350,000. in Norfolk, rather than pay premium prices in Burnham Market, Cley-next-the-Sea, Wells-next-the-Sea or Blakeney, look to nearby Overstrand, Sheringham and Cromer.
In Kent, Simon Backhouse, partner in Strutt and Parker’s Canterbury office, would go for Deal. “It’s a bit quieter and cheaper, because it is further from London,” he says. “And it has a pier.”
On the west Scottish coast, Troon is popular, but the delightful area around Crinan and Tayvallich, in Argyll, is cheaper. it benefits from the Gulf Stream, which means milder winters, but watch out for midges in summer.
Cutting-edge urban
For many househunters, cool bars, good restaurants, boutiques and neon lights are as desirable as a sea view or a good school. then there’s the allure of “discovering” an area before everyone else — which brings not only cachet, but a big price rise when it’s time to sell.
So where’s the next up-and-coming area? Hoxton and Shoreditch, in the East end, are now so expensive that the only people who can afford to buy there are bankers, so truly trendy types are moving to Bethnal Green (where the MTV presenter Alexa Chung has a place) and London Fields. Peckham, in southeast London, has been flagged up as a future hot spot, and from 2012 will be linked to the London Overground rail system.
In the capital, much gentrification has been down to students, artists and other members of the creative professions venturing where others fear to tread. elsewhere, the way has often been led by developers such as Urban Splash (urbansplash.co.uk), which scours the country in search of the next hip neighbourhoods. two of its latest finds include Royal William Yard, in Plymouth, and Saxton, on the eastern fringe of Leeds, where it is renovating two ex-council blocks. One-bedroom flats start at £70,000 under the HomeBuy Direct equity loan scheme.
“We have always tried to find the bits of our country and cities that others have overlooked,” says Tom Bloxham, chairman of Urban Splash. “Areas with real potential that just need a bit of love.”
Bristol has emerged as one of Britain’s hippest cities, attracting artists, surfers and eco-trendies. Right-on companies such as the Soil Association, the ethical bank Triodos and the Environment Agency have their headquarters here. The dockyard area is an important part of the city’s reinvention; Savills has 145 one- and two-bedroom flats a stone’s throw from the harbourside, with prices starting at £150,000. Ben West and Lynne Greenwood
Suburbia
You are ready to cash in your city chips for a grown-up house with a double garage and a garden to swallow up the planned children and pets, and your priorities are good schools and nice neighbours, not funky bars and clubs. There’s only one place to go: commuterland.
For those who work in London, the classic favourites are in the south and west, starting in the Surrey stockbroker belt and working clockwise through the A3 corridor to the riverside delights of Henley and Maidenhead. The problem? Prices can be as high as in the capital.
If you can’t afford what you want once you’ve factored in the cost of a season ticket and station parking (look at nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/season_tickets), look north and east.
“Average family-house values in the home counties to the north, northeast and east of London, such as Essex, East Hertfordshire and Suffolk, can be up to 25% less than those in Buckinghamshire or Berkshire,” says Liam Bailey, head of research at Knight Frank. “London’s centre of gravity is shifting eastwards, so that side makes sense.”
Bailey calculates that an average four-bedroom house costs £397,817 in Chelmsford and £306,353 in Colchester; both have good grammar schools. And consider Bedfordshire, in his view one of the most undervalued home counties. “Look at the A1 corridor, with attractive towns such as Biggleswade or Sandy,” he says.
If you still want to be in that magic southwestern quadrant, one way is to move further out. “There’s a big difference in prices if you go over the magic hour to commute,” says David Adams, head of residential sales at Chesterton Humberts. “A classic comparison is Winchester [pricey] and Salisbury [less so].”
You’ll always pay a premium for period features, though: post-war homes tend to cost less. another trick, says Adams, is to look on a busy road. “You’ll get a 20%-30% discount. it might cost a few thousand to build a brick wall or plant a dense hedge, but that will more than pay you back later in added value.”
Family-house prices in the suburbs of Manchester also vary hugely: spacious four-bedroom period homes in favoured Didsbury and Chorlton sell for £400,000-£650,000, but prices are much lower near Salford. in Birmingham, commuters will get more space for less cash by going west to leafy Hagley or Blakedown, rather than to Solihull or Sutton Coldfield. Cherry Maslen
A country seat
So you want to live in the countryside, to commune with nature, enjoy a local ale in the pub and eat organic produce from the farm shop. But where do you start? Househunting in the sticks can be a longer, more gruelling process than in town, if only because of the distances involved.
If your dream is an old rectory set in 30 or so acres in the more favoured counties such as Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire or Gloucestershire within three hours of London, be prepared to spend at least £5m. If you still want the photogenic pile and the land, “go to East Anglia or Herefordshire, where you can find something similar for £2m to £3m”, says Jonathan Bramwell, director of the buying agency Prime Purchase (prime-purchase.com).
That’s not to say there aren’t bargains. look for homes that have been reduced (growing numbers have taken a hefty cut since the election), then haggle hard. Arreton Manor, set in 4½ acres on the Isle of Wight, for example, has been reduced from £2.35m to £1.95m (creasey-biles-king.co.uk).
James Greenwood, managing director of Stacks, a home-search agency in Gloucestershire, believes the next year is “the best time to buy in the country for half a generation, as the recession begins to bite even in popular locations”. His tip? get in the car now and monitor the market, but “don’t be seduced by the first thing you see”.
If you’re after real countryside, consider a farmhouse — the lower ceilings and less grand aspect are often offset by more acreage and outbuildings. Again, prices are highest in the south and southwest — you should count on spending £1.5m-£3m — but decline sharply the further you travel from London. in Northumberland, co Durham and Wales you can pick up a stone smallholding for less than £500,000. George F White (georgefwhite.co.uk) is selling Green Rigg, near Barnard Castle, in co Durham, with 3½ acres, for £420,000.
If you’re after a more modest weekend bolt hole or holiday home, Jackson-Stops & Staff is selling four-bedroom little Egret Cottage, near Dorchester, in Dorset for £625,000 (jackson-stops.co.uk). or, on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, Keeper’s Cottage is available for £390,000 (andrew-cowen.com). For a “lock up and leave” option, there are ready-made resorts such as Yoo or the lower Mill Estate (three-bedroom houses start at £500,000; lowermillestate.com), both in Gloucestershire. Usage is limited, but you can use a rental pool to boost income. Helen Davies
Townhouses
The townhouse has been in fashion ever since the landed gentry decided that a tall, slender urban home was the essential antidote to too much country life. The Georgians treated these new terraces as city crash pads, a place to rest their bewigged heads; the Victorian middle classes saw them as a way of aping upper-class style on a budget.
Today, from Belgravia to Brixham, they are still prized. their wide appeal — to overseas buyers, commuter couples, homeworkers and multigenerational families — adds a premium.
Peter Rollings, managing director of Marsh & Parsons in west London (marshandparsons.co.uk), says that prices have risen by 7% since January, outstripping other property types. he is remarketing a Georgian example in Kensington, which went on sale 18 months ago for £5.95m. “We didn’t get a sniff then,” he says. “We put in on again two weeks ago for £6.5m and have had 65 viewings.”
Charles McDowell, an independent broker, has another, on Egerton Crescent, in South Kensington, for £9.5m (020 7581 8357). South of the river, in Kennington and Stockwell, a large townhouse would sell for about £1m; in Whitechapel, east London, you might find a four-bedroom one for £800,000.
The original purpose of a townhouse was primarily social, so one of its defining features is spacious entertaining rooms. George Cardale, a director of Savills in Bristol, says a 5,000 sq ft one there would cost about £1m: “We get more requests for Georgian townhouses than anything.” The skinny proportions also suit homeworkers who can designate an entire floor as an office. whichever town you choose, start your search in a well-located conservation area, where architectural integrity will be closely monitored by planners.
Most people think of townhouses as period property, but the style is also popular with contemporary developers: they take up less area than a regular semi and the name lends them cachet. new properties may come with a larger garden and parking, too. Dene Terrace, in Chislehurst, Kent, has five-storey, five-bedroom houses from £1.4m (knightfrank.com).
Another impressive scheme is Scalebor Park, in Burley-in-Wharfdale, near Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Walker Smale has a six-bedroom, four-bathroom house there for £459,950 (walker-smale.co.uk).
Spa towns are a particularly good source of period homes. in Ilkley, Ian Briggs, manager of Dacre, Son and Hartley (dacres.co.uk), says a stone Victorian townhouse with five or six bedrooms would cost £400,000-£600,000.
In Harrogate, that would buy less. Simon Myring, director of Myrings (myringsestateagents.com), says a four-storey, six-bedroom house would cost up to £1.5m. he says the perfect example has period features and modern twists, such as a cinema in the basement. Ruth Bloomfield
Projects with profit
If your dream is a one-off home with a bit (or a lot) of history, one place to start is the Buildings at Risk Register, published annually by Save Britain’s Heritage (Save). The latest edition, out on Tuesday (savebritainsheritage.org; £15 for a catalogue or £25 for online access), highlights properties that local conservation authorities want to see renovated, including townhouses, former schools, defunct mills and derelict farm buildings.
Some on the list have “Grand Designs” written all over them; others need more imagination. Most, though, have huge potential to be turned into homes with space, heritage and an individual stamp. not all are on the market, as such, but owners can often be persuaded to sell; council conservation officers may be able to help you get in touch. They’re also likely to know the building’s history and any local planning issues to be overcome.
“The best bargains are in areas where there is less pressure on the housing market,” says William Palin, secretary of Save, “sparsely populated counties such as Cumbria and Lincolnshire, where, for example, Mill House, in Gedney, recently came onto the market for £99,995.” there are fewer “spectacular” derelict properties in the southeast, but plenty in Wales — among them a former Baptist Chapel in Newbridge, Caerphilly, at £75,000.
If it is a rural idyll without crippling prices that you crave, Wales — and the west, in particular, with its good schools, low crime rate and proximity to the coast — is the ideal location. “We’re getting a lot of people looking for homes to do up in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire,” says Carol Pett, director of the West Wales branch of County Homesearch (county-homesearch.co.uk). “The last two areas are 25%-30% cheaper than Pembrokeshire, but you can get good value in all three compared to southern England.”
Availability is linked with the state of the agricultural economy: as farmers retire and sell up, more homes come on sale. “There’s not enough money in dairy and sheep farming,” Pett says. “You can find unconverted barns from £100,000 to £250,000.”
Make sure that the planners will allow you to live there, though; this is easier for buildings in or near villages than for those in open country in the national parks. on the market near the town of Llandeilo, in Carmarthenshire, are a detached barn with consent to be converted into a four-bedroom house, priced at £125,000 (with the option to buy an additional four acres separately), and one with 10 acres, which would make a three- to four-bedroom home, for £235,000, both through Clees Tompkinson Francis (ctf-uk.com).
The north — less recession-proof than the south — is also a good hunting ground for unusual buildings, but if proximity to London is important, Palin suggests Kent. “There are traditionally ‘unglamorous’ but promising towns in north and east of the county, such as Gravesend, Rochester, Chatham, Margate and Dover, all of which have an excellent store of unloved Georgian and Victorian townhouses, sometimes at a fraction of regular prices,” he says.
You should also look at the web-sites of English Heritage (tinyurl.com/ 344bby6) and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (spab.org.uk) for registers of buildings that need someone to take them on. Less thrilling than a big restoration project, “re-renovations” are still good value: for example, barns converted 30 years ago that now need updating.
Wherever you’re looking, try to stay ahead of the game: once you have chosen an area, talk to people and read the local press. think about the kind of sites that, with the help of an architect, could be transformed into homes, such as offices, defunct shops or municipal buildings — there could be more of these available as spending cuts bite. there should be less competition for them, but watch out for circling developers and be ready to move quickly.
Try auctions, too, including online ones such as those run by Zoopla (zoopla.co.uk). “There’s a lot of property coming up at auction in the post-recession fallout,” says Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove.co.uk. His top tip is former commercial property — again, bearing in mind the need to get permission to convert to residential use.
“We’re looking at the death of the high street, as shops can’t compete with online and out-of-town retail,” he says. “High-street commercial property used to command a higher price than residential, but now the reverse is true. For the best prices and investment potential, aim for attractive towns in the north — start in York or Harrogate — and look for former commercial premises.” Cherry Maslen
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