There's something about a rectory that warms the cockles of an British heart. Rectory-hunters make up about 80 per cent of the clientele at Knight Frank's country house department, according to its head, Rupert Sweeting. “If I ask a prospective buyer to describe their perfect house, eight out of ten will say a Georgian or Queen Anne rectory,” he says.

Why the ecclesiastical emphasis?

The attraction is not so much being next door to a church as the quality of the building and the village location, Sweeting says. “A lot of rectors were the second or third sons of local gentry, so they had money to build a good house. The rooms tend to be a good size, the setting is the best in the village and the garden is landscaped with lovely trees. Twenty years ago, everyone wanted remote country houses, but now they want the security of being in the middle of the village.”

The only thing nouveau rectors should look out for, he says, is a “chancel repair liability” clause in the deeds that makes you responsible for church repairs.

Is now a good time to bag a bargain rectory?

Not exactly. It's true that the country house market in general is starting to deflate, with prices down by 3.9 per cent in the past quarter, but prices are holding up in certain regions and categories. Liam Bailey, Knight Frank's head of research, notes that prime country houses in parts of Scotland and the North of England “seem immune from the falls seen elsewhere”, with flat prices or rises of under 1 per cent in the Lothians, the West Coast, the Borders and Northumberland. “Viewings and instructions have also increased”, he says, in contrast to the rest of the country, notably the Midlands and the South.

The manor house sector, which includes rectories, has had the smallest quarterly price fall: 1.9 per cent. This, Bailey says, is due to “the unique nature of these larger properties and their relative scarcity. They are on average still worth more than they were a year ago, if only by 0.1 per cent.”

The rarity of rectories and the wealth of the typical buyer means that they are likely to hold their value. They are “a good bet in a recession”, Sweeting says. He adds that rectory enthusiasts are unlikely to be gazumped by a sheikh: “Middle Eastern buyers are wary about living next door to graveyards.”

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