Want to enjoy the country-house lifestyle on the cheap? Struggling to find
your dream property or can’t afford to buy your own multi-million-pound home
in the country? Then why not rent?
For many, the idea would have seemed extraordinary until recently. A small
bolt hole in the city, maybe, but not a significant country house. The
notion of handing over a substantial amount of money every month to a
landlord rather than a building society seemed not quite the done thing,
like holidaying in Britain or growing your own vegetables. Times are
changing, though. Cultivating one’s own spuds has made a post-credit-crunch
come-back, going camping in Cornwall is now fashionable – and so, too, is
renting.
As the housing market turns ever more gloomy, demand for country lettings is
booming, especially since the current relationship between sale prices and
rents means you can live in the same property for much less than you would
have to shell out in monthly mortgage payments.
Take Loddenden Manor, in Staple-hurst, Kent. The Grade II-listed Elizabethan
manor house set in 10 acres has eight bedrooms, a detached coach house,
stables, a pool and a paddock. It is on sale through Savills for £2.25m
(01892 507050, www.savills.com), but you could rent it for £8,000 per month.
At £96,000 a year, it is not cheap, but do the sums and the owners are only
earning a 4.3% return on their money. Borrowing the £2.25m to buy it
yourself would cost at least another half as much again in mortgage interest
– plus there is the small matter of the £90,000 stamp duty and all the other
costs.
Then there is Manor Farm House, near Faversham, also in Kent. This beautifully
restored four-bedroom property comes with a three-bed stable cottage,
billiard room and gym, and is available for £6,000 a month with Savills
(01732 789760, www.savills.com), or to
buy for £1.5m through Strutt & Parker (01227 451123, www.struttandparker.co.uk).
Or what about Bordean Manor House, near Petersfield in Hampshire? The
nine-bedroom, Grade II-listed property is set in almost 15 acres of grounds,
has a library, gym and paddocks, and is £6,750 a month to rent – or £1.7m to
buy – with John D Wood (01962 863131, www.johndwood.co.uk).
Some rental properties also offer the chance to live in a style or setting
that one would never be able to buy, because the properties in question are
located on large landed estates and would rarely come up for sale. Take, for
example, Wickselm House, in the grounds of Berkeley Castle, a 6,000-acre
estate in Gloucestershire, where the Barons of the West gathered before
forcing King John to sign the Magna Carta, and where Queen Eliza-beth I once
hunted and played. The beautiful Grade II-listed property – available to
rent for £3,900 per month through the local agency Hardcastles – comes with
15 acres, five bedrooms (but only two bathrooms), a kitchen warmed by an Aga
and stabling for nine horses.
In response to the growing demand for rentals, Berkeley Castle, like many
other estates across the country, is in the process of upgrading the 100 or
so properties scattered around the grounds, investing in new kitchens and
bathrooms, installing showers and swapping dowdy decor for a clean, neutral
palette – all of which will allow the owners to charge a higher rent.
Rental records are being smashed all over the country – especially in the home
counties. Hamptons International says numbers of rental applicants outside
London are up 33% since the start of the year. “In some locations we have
seen properties go to ‘best bids’,” says Catherine Manning, the agency’s
regional lettings director. “There is an unmistakable increase in the number
of families looking to relocate away from London. They want quality homes
with decent commuter links to the capital and good private schools nearby.”
In a sense, this is not so much a new phenomenon as a return to an old one.
Until the early years of the previous century, prior to the growth of the
mass mortgage market, people would be quite happy to rent – even in the
country. The well-to-do would take a place in town, a shooting lodge for the
season and perhaps another comfortable place in the shires to fish,
entertain and play croquet. These days, for many, it seems to make sense
again – especially since one of the strongest reasons for buying, the
expectation of capital gains, is far from certain with sale prices falling
across most of the market.
“You can rent the lifestyle that you may not be able to afford to buy,” says
Mary Ryan, director of lettings at the top-end buying agency Property
Vision, who says she is the busiest she has been for more than 10 years.
“There are lots of people in the City who want somewhere to escape to but
don’t want the hassle of maintaining the property. That way they get to
enjoy all the pleasures and perks and none of the painful bills, which means
they get to keep their house in London and their finances stay more
flexible. As the market goes down, some investors want to see their money in
the bank, not bricks and mortar.”
For the elderly, renting can also be more tax efficient than buying: Ryan has
one client renting long term specifically to avoid paying inheritance tax.
Taking out a rental lease on a country pile is not as straightforward as
renting a two-bed urban flat. Tenants paying up to £480 per week are
protected by the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Act, but above that both parties
must sign a contractual tenancy. In this case, it is up to the landlord and
tenant to negotiate and agree terms, which can cover matters such as
responsibility for cleaning the gutters, maintaining the swimming pool, and
who has use of any sporting rights such as fishing. There may also be
conditions on, for example, retaining staff.
Most – but not all – country houses are let on a full repairing lease, under
which the tenant is responsible for the internal decor and basic upkeep,
while the landlord must deal with any significant structural issues, such as
a collapsing roof.
Geraldine Lacey, a manager of The Country House Company, based in Hampshire,
says prices for a bucolic bolt hole in the home counties start at £600 per
month for a one-bed property up to £10,000 or more for the grandest country
houses. She attributes the rise of renting to the economic slowdown.
“Whenever the sales market slips or wobbles, rents excel,” she says.
Lucian Cook, director of residential research at Savills estate agency,
agrees. “In the recent past, we have seen a trend for people to dip in and
out of the freehold market, accumulating equity as they go along,” he says.
“In-between times they will rent, sometimes paying a year’s rent up front
out of their equity. Today, with low rental yields, it is likely that these
people will look to rent for much longer periods.”
Traditionally, the country rentals scene was dominated by corporate clients
posted from overseas, whose employers would pay for anything within 4WD
distance of an international school. These days, the market has expanded to
include many Britons who are happy to pay their own rent.
The fiercest competition is for properties within a 30-minute car journey of
boarding schools, especially near Oxford, Petersfield in Hampshire,
Seven-oaks in Kent and almost anywhere in Dorset. For many of those who
rent, it is about having somewhere for the weekend when the children are on
exeat.
But, wherever the house is located, what tenants also want is as many “toys”
as they can get. Top of the list is land – five to 20 acres, enough to let
the kids roam free and keep a couple of ponies – a tennis court, a swimming
pool (heated, of course) and, at the upper end of the market, somewhere to
house the staff. Well, someone has to air therooms, stock the fridge and
fire up the Aga.
And if you get bored with the place, you can just move out and rent somewhere
else instead.
Property Vision; 01344 651700, www.propertyvision.co.uk
Additional reporting by Lucy Denyer
So, what’s the catch?
Puslinch House, one of the prettiest properties in the West Country, lies
above a creek of the River Yealm near Plymouth. It can be yours for
£600,000, but only for 21 years – which works out at just over £28,500 a
year. The Grade I-listed house was built in the 1720s by the Yonge family,
who still own the freehold. It is beautifully compact, with eight bedrooms
(six ensuite), exquisitely furnished, with formal gardens, a swimming pool,
tennis court and conservatory.
Through Savills; 01392 253344, www.savills.com
