When Valley Farm went on the market last year, the £3.5m asking price seemed
reasonable for a five-bedroom stone farmhouse on 90 acres. After more than
50 viewings, however, the pretty house in a “magical private valley” near
Cirencester, Gloucestershire, became the subject of a ferocious battle
between seven bidders. It eventually sold for closer to £5m.
The sale of Hawling Lodge, a Georgian house with 156 acres near
Stow-on-the-Wold, about 20 miles to the north, also caused what one agent
described as a “real bun fight” when it went on the market last year. After
a contest between four serious bidders, it went for £2.25m — a quarter of a
million more than the asking price.
The reason? Both properties are in the Cotswolds, a picturesque place of
rolling green hills, dotted with manor houses, chocolate-box villages and
bustling market towns, where no barn has been left unconverted.
Thanks to its excellent communications — it is only an hour-and-a-half’s drive
from London or 70 minutes by train — the area has always been popular with
urbanites looking for a permanent home in the country or a weekend bolt
hole. But prices have risen so much in the past few years that those trading
in even a sizeable home in the capital are often disappointed at what their
money will buy them.
“You have to pay a big premium to live in the mainstream Cotswolds,” says
Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank’s country house department. “Prices have
shot up over the past 10 years. People start off looking for an old rectory
on the edge of a village, thinking £2m will be enough, but you need
£3m-£5m.”
The Cotswolds — a region with boundaries not clearly defined — are about
buying into the lifestyle, and not just the area, an appeal that estate
agents understand.
So if you can’t afford the Cotswolds, where do you go? The answer is the
prettier villages and market towns of surrounding counties, such as
Somerset, Shropshire, Herefordshire, the Northamptonshire/Oxfordshire
borders, and Worcestershire — all of which have been labelled “the new
Cotswolds” in the past 18 months by estate agents eager to sell the country
dream, with a more affordable price tag.
“This is a trend we have seen over five years as people look for a better
quality of life and property they can afford,” says Martin Ellis, chief
economist at the Halifax bank. “It is a natural knock-on. As popular areas
have become more and more expensive, so people have turned to nearby areas.
They have to be prepared to travel a bit further, but they still have access
to the same attractions.”
The process of rural gentrification, or “the Cotswolds effect” as one estate
agent refers to it, is already making itself felt: gastropubs, delicatessens
and boutiques are sprouting up in previously unfashionable or little-known
towns in neighbouring counties. It is as if the merest hint of a Cath
Kidston sprig or a bottle of pinot grigio in the pub will set property
prices rising. Rather than Tetbury, Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Campden,
the latest village hot spots on buyers’ lips are Shipton on Stour,
Ross-on-Wye, Banbury, Trowbridge and Shepton Mallet.
Yolande Barnes, head of research at Savills estate agency, has analysed the
price differences between the emerging weekend destinations that are giving
the Cotwolds a run for their money.
“Prices in these new areas such as the Forest of Dean, the Malvern Hills and
south Northamptonshire, have tripled in the past three years,” she says.
“But, what is interesting is the discount you can still expect on Cotswold
prices. For example, a detached weekend cottage in the Malvern Hills is 23%
less than a similar one in the Cotswolds.”
“Admittedly, house prices drop the further away you are from main
communication lines into London and other big cities,” she adds. “But an
extra 15 minutes in the car could get you an extra bedroom, acre, or a
better view.”
James Mackenzie, a director of Savills’ country house department, who
describes his patch as “anywhere north of the M4”, agrees. “People still
want to live in the Cotswolds, but not everyone can afford it,” he says.
“Two years ago, you would cross the Severn bridge, and expect prices to drop
by 15%-20%; now there’s no real difference at all. Some families looking to
relocate to a detached house in the country have been priced out of
Gloucestershire, north Wiltshire and around Oxford.”
Among those obliged to look further afield is Ed Coode, the Olympic gold
medal-winning rower. Now studying law at the University of Bristol, Coode,
31, and his wife, Clare, spent 14 months househunting in the Cotswolds after
deciding to leave London. They wanted a house within an hour’s commute of
Bristol with at least three bedrooms and a large kitchen. They also wanted
to be well away from a main road for the sake of Gertie, their border
terrier.
“We started looking for somewhere to buy for less than £500,000 in the south
Cotswolds region, between Bath and Cirencester,” says Clare, 31, a freelance
writer. “We registered with every estate agency in the vicinity and checked
Primelocation.com about five times a day, but had no luck.
“We saw lots of properties, but none of them ticked more than two out of our
five boxes. And most of the Cotswold cottages we saw had such low ceilings
that 6ft 4in-tall Ed could only stand up in the stairwell.”
When Clare became pregnant last May, the need for more bedrooms and outside
space was paramount, so they broadened their search to the Chew Valley, just
south of Bristol, and then to the Quantocks. There they found a
three-bedroom house set in 1½ acres on the outskirts of Cothelstone, near
Taunton, with a study, playroom and huge kitchen with room for a sofa.
Coode says: “The countryside is scruffier but more spectacular. It is an hour
further from London by car, but about the same by train. The pubs are much
less chichi than those in the Cotswolds, but the people are less cliquey.”
“In the Cotswolds, half-a-million pounds is peanuts,” says Clare. “We got so
much space for our money here. We still have lots of friends living in the
Cotswolds, but we can’t afford to buy there.”
The Coodes found what they wanted in the Quantocks. It is just one of the
areas being touted by estate agents as the new Cotswolds. So where are the
contenders attracting aspiring ruralites?
Somerset
“Buyers are much more prepared to travel further west,” says Mackenzie.
“People will now go into the Chew Valley in Somerset, which is pretty but is
another 45-minute drive off the M4 or M5. There is also some concern over
the possible expansion of Bristol airport.”
Prices in the Quantocks have risen less than the national average over the
past five years: 76%, compared to 94% average, but they rose 10% in 2006, as
buyers like the Coodes are venturing further out into the countryside to
find better value. Last year, honey-coloured Manor Farm near Middle
Chinnock, near Crewkerne, on 15 acres, sold for “quite a bit” over its £2m
guide price.
Shropshire
Five years ago it was possible to pick up a dream farmhouse with a couple of
acres for £400,000, according to Kevin Boulton of Lane Fox’s Ludlow office.
“Now that would only get you a cottage with a couple of acres. A farmhouse,
when they do come up for sale, will be about £650,000.”
It was “discovered” in 2003, when it underwent its greatest period of growth
and prices rose by 30%. Award-winning cheesemongers and Michelin-starred
restaurants arrived shortly afterwards.
“The 15-mile radius around Ludlow has been deemed ‘the new Cotswolds’ for some
time,” says Boulton. “There continues to be a demand for properties north of
Leominster up to Church Stretton over towards the Clun Valley in the west
and Cleobury Mortimer.”
Three years ago, buyers were reluctant to go west of the A49; now it seems
that unwillingness has disappeared.
Worcestershire
“Ludlow has been found,” says Andrew Grant, director of the estate agency that
bears his name in Worcestershire and Herefordshire. “But in some ways the
Malverns, which are more rolling and green than
the Cotswolds, have only just been noticed.”
The average house price in Worcestershire, one of Britain’s most rural
counties, is £195,000, according to the Halifax. There are relatively few
medium-to-large houses, but there are near-perfect Georgian market towns
such as Pershore, Broadway and Upton upon Severn that are attracting
boutiques and relocating families, as well as Ombersley, a village of
ancient timbered black-and-white houses near Worcestershire, and the
fantastically named Upton Snodsbury. Grant recently sold an Edwardian
country house with seven acres near Pershore for £2.5m — £600,000 more than
its initial guide price.
Northamptonshire/Oxfordshire borders
There is no such thing as an undiscovered paradise, according to Henry
Holland-Hibbert, managing director of Lane Fox’s country house department,
but there are some less well-known areas of the countryside, with more
potential for growth.
“The area that I have been tipping for real growth is the piece of England on
the Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire borders, between the A5 and the M40,
around Towcester and its neighbouring villages,” says Holland-Hibbert, who
points to villages such as Hulcote and Caldecote, Everdon and Eydon, that
are distinguished by the red-orange tinge of the local brickwork.
Property prices are growing at a faster rate than the national average. In
2003, the Land Registry did not record a single property changing hands in
Northamptonshire for more than £2m. Since then, five have sold for more than
£2m.
“Just to give an indication of price increase, we sold a property in Everdon
five years ago at £1.2m,” says Holland-Hibbert. “We sold it again 18 months
ago for £1.6m and it would probably now be worth nearer £2m.”
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is not just the new Cotswolds but the old Shropshire. It was
long seen as something of a rural backwater, but is now pulling in a great
number of families looking for upwards of 15 acres or a smallholding. It
does not have the foodie reputation of Shropshire, but it does have the
poshest buy-to-let investment: Prince Charles is building a six-bedroom,
ecofriendly mansion on the banks of the River Wye.
Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank predicts Herefordshire will be one of this
year’s new hot spots, outperforming the Cotswolds with 10% growth for the
best houses.
“There are some real bargains to be had,” says Sweeting. “Towns like
Ross-on-Wye and Ledbury are becoming much more popular.” But, at a
two-and-a-half-hour drive away from London, Herfordshire is, strictly
speaking, frontier country — less suited to second-home owners, and more
suited to families looking for a rural life.
ON THE MARKET
Banbury, £1.45m
Four-bed Magdalen Lodge with outbuildings and paddocks. Lane Fox, 01295 273
592, www.lanefox.co.uk
Ross-on-Wye, £1.65m
The Dadnor Court estate has 25 acres. Andrew Grant, 01905 734 735, www.andrew-grant.co.uk
Old Cleeve, £825,000
A Grade II-listed, five-bed house. Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01823 325 144, www.jackson-stops.co.uk
Ludlow, £298,000
A semi-detached four-bed cottage in Culmington. Lane Fox, 01584 873 711, www.lanefox.co.uk
Lower Lydbrook, £350,000
A four-bed house with river views. Roscoe, Rogers and Knight, 01600 772 929, www.r-r-k.co.uk
