MANY OF the recipients of City bonuses are planning to spend their money on “getting rural”, but properties in the depths of the countryside are not exactly what they have in mind.

The ideal country house is Georgian, in good order, with no need for renovation and far from traffic noise and other disturbances. It is also within 90 minutes of London. Mark Lawson, a partner at The Buying Solution, a firm of buying agents that seeks out potential homes for clients preoccupied with mergers and acquisitions, sets out the geographical limits on the major roads out of the capital: “The farthest point on the A1 is around Cambridge; on the M40, somewhere outside Oxford; on the M4, it’s Marlborough or Swindon; on the M3, Winchester; and on the A3, Petersfield in Hampshire.”

The fixation for Georgian symmetry persists despite the scarcity of such properties. Lawson explains: “The design of a Georgian house works: there is a big hall and it’s nice and light.” A Georgian rectory in Bluntisham, ten miles from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, currently offered by Carter Jonas for £1.75 million, embodies the Classical ideals of the typical recipient of a bumper bonus. The train journey from King’s Cross to Huntingdon is 52 minutes; contrary to what you might suppose, City boys do not turn up their noses at public transport.

But despite the preference for closeness to town, Lawson says that some buyers are willing to contemplate a journey of around two hours if they can do some work from home, or travel by helicopter, an increasingly popular form of transport. The willingness to spend a little longer in the car means that Georgian architecture can be acquired for less. Fieldgrove House, a Georgian house near Bitton, between Bath and Bristol, is for sale with Knight Frank for £1.95 million. This is not the most glamorous part of Gloucestershire, but the buyer will get seven bedrooms and 15 acres for his money.

The buyer of Beech Court in Winford, north Somerset, must be prepared to endure the difficult traffic around Bristol. But there are compensations. This Grade II* William and Mary property (more chic in some circles than Georgian) has seven bedrooms, a paddock, a walled garden and a stable block converted into offices.

Sometimes stately splendour is available much closer to the metropolis. Sundridge Park, a Grade I listed house with 7½ acres, one of the most original works of John Nash, is in Bromley, just 14 miles from Central London. Yet there are views over 300 acres of parkland, without a building in sight — which may be why the asking price for this mansion is £8.5 million.

Rural isolation is not part of the deal. The Cathedral Group, which acquired the whole estate for £15 million, is turning the 18th-century stables into seven new houses and building three blocks of apartments in the grounds to replace an existing training centre. The new owner will need to restore the upper floor of the property, which has been used as a conference centre and wedding venue, back into a home; almost all the bedrooms have been subdivided. However, a very grand bedroom remains intact, so that a buyer could take up residence at once and start entertaining in the spectacularly decorated downstairs rooms, designed by Samuel Wyatt, Nash’s great rival. There is a succession of rooms of unusual shapes: ovals and rotundas as well as rooms with apsed ends and rounded corners. Every inch of the ceilings and walls is enlivened with garlands of flowers and cameo medallions. Life within this pleasure dome could be further enlivened if the buyer takes up the option to build a new wing with a spa and indoor pool.

The country house market

A “WALL OF MONEY” generated in the City of London and Canary Wharf has pushed up the prices of prime country houses this year. Knight Frank now expects an overall increase for 2006 of 11 per cent, with a 16 per cent increase for the most prestigious properties — those costing more than £3 million. The typical manor house now has an average price of £2.9 million — up £320,000 over 12 months. This equates to APD (appreciation per day) of £876. Rupert Sweeting, of Knight Frank, says demand for country houses is set to move into a higher gear this week as directors of private equity firms, mergers and acquisitions specialists and other already handsomely remunerated individuals learn the size of their bonuses. The shortage of properties for sale will add to the pressure on prices.

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