Our agency team are celebrating two of their biggest sales of the year which have recently successfully exchanged and completed despite the recent negativity in the press about the property market.
There is no doubt there are still some underlying challenges particularly in the middle market where tightening lending requirements after recent interest rates raises are having a significant impact. However, it does appear that the top end of the country house and farms market is somewhat immune to these. There appears to be a significant amount of cash still available to purchase good quality property that is still in very short supply.
We have managed the Knightwick Manor Estate on the Worcestershire and Herefordshire borders for several years. However, earlier this year a long-standing client of one of our consultants, Anthony Champion, made the difficult decision to retire and sell the whole Estate comprising a Grade II Manor House, extensive range of traditional and modern farm buildings together with 6 cottages and around 523 acres of pasture, arable and woodland. The property was marketed at the beginning of the summer with a guide price of £7.75 million. Partner, Matthew Allen who heads up our National Country Agency Team (NCAT), managed the sale and after competitive bidding from a range of purchasers including rollover buyers, investors and expanding farmers, it was completed earlier this month to a lifestyle buyer.
Associate Partner, Richard Gadd, who heads the Farm Agency team led on the sale of Thurlaston Lodge Farm in Leicestershire which has also recently completed. He identified the strategic potential of the 190-acre mixed farm located close to recently allocated sites and the A47 trunk road. A comprehensive planning appraisal was completed our national planning and development team which greatly assisted in the marketing. When the property was offered to the open market in April this year, there were over 40 viewings and several rounds of bidding and a sale was agreed to a strategic investor substantially in excess of the £4,050,000 guide price despite the presence of various overage provisions.
Anyone interested in having a discussion about the sale of their country property should get in touch with our NCAT team by clicking here.
