Where To Buy
In your search for a country house, a village with a church, pub, village hall and shop would probably be ideal. However it is worth bearing in mind that the character of villages is very different. There are those that are stretched out over some distance with houses well spaced out. Other villages have houses clustered more closely round the village green or along the one road running through the village.
In some villages, more than half the houses are second homes or holiday lets which can mean that with few people around in the week, there is very little community spirit. At the other extreme, pretty villages such as Bibury, Broadway and Upper Slaughter are very attractive but subsequently are crowded with tourists for much of the year. I can assure you that it becomes very tedious when coaches are blocking the road and you have video cameras peering into your bedroom from the top deck of a coach! Whereas City living is effectively classless. The landed gentry are very visible in the countryside. Some villages are still estate villages with much of the land owned by one family and many of the houses tenanted by current and former estate workers. This can make for a social divide amongst newer homeowners and typically older tenants.
In your property search it is worth investigating if there is an active airfield nearby. Military aircraft fly very low over the top of the house which can be alarming the first time you see it. Also find out if your village is used as a rat run by cars and lorries to a train station or motorway. It is also worth checking out your mobile phone coverage. Many old houses with thick Cotswold limestone walls will not pick up any mobile signal. In some villages one phone company service will work whereas another will not. For instance, only Vodafone will work in Lechlade whereas in Tetbury, T mobile reception is said to be very good. The Cotswolds is famous across the world and subsequently attracts international as well as domestic homebuyers. Houses are expensive, prohibitively so for many young people. Therefore, you may have to lower your sights from the Georgian Rectory with swimming pool, tennis court and paddock in Gloucestershire. It is best to be open-minded. You may end up in a new barn conversion in Wiltshire.
Sealed bids are common even on properties requiring lots of work. Do not forget to factor in the cost of any building work bearing in mind that it always takes longer and costs more, (double in my case), than your original estimates. The two words “bottomless” and “pit” spring to mind when it comes to restoring old houses. There is also the cost of ongoing maintenance. A budget of at least £650,000 should be assumed for a decent four bed family house with perhaps a third of an acre of garden. However it will be necessary to spend £1m-£1.5m if you want a larger house with more than an acre of land. Many large houses have surprisingly small gardens with much of the surrounding land having been sold off over the years. Generally, I think it is possible to find cheaper houses in the south of the Cotswolds where there are fewer picture postcard villages and more modern houses.
You may have to rent for over a year because of the shortage of suitable family houses. This can be advantageous if you choose to rent in an area that you may consider buying in, as you can get a feel as to whether it is somewhere you could live if not happily ever after, at least for four or five years.
It can take longer than you think to find the house you want in the Cotswolds and if you are renting then you may end up losing out if prices continue rising. If you can afford not to, then do not sell your London property, or at least keep a small flat. London property will always be a good long term investment and if you don’t end up liking country life then you can always return to London which will be much harder to do if you sell up entirely. In recent years, the shortage of available family houses in the Cotswolds has spurred the growth of the property search market. For a fee, agents are supposed to find you a house. Often deals can be done without the property ever coming onto the open market. I have not had any problem finding houses when I wanted, where I wanted, and so have not had to use such agents. In the first instance you could make sure you ring estate agents in your target area several times a week so they know you are keen and will hopefully ring you first when a suitable property is coming on the market.
As one would expect, estate agents are plentiful in the Cotswolds. Historically, Knight Frank has been strong at the top end of the market but the arrival of Savills has brought some welcome competition across the region. Strutt & Parker has attractive properties in the south of the Cotswolds.Hamptons has a good spread of offices throughout the region and often has houses in Minchinhampton and other villages close to the popular independent school, Beaudesert Park. Local agent Butler Sherborn has attractive properties across the region and pleasant staff. Among the smaller local agents, Hayman-Joyce is good for houses in Broadway and the surrounding villages. Murrays covers the Stroud valley area including Minchinhampton.
Jackson-Stops & Staff is particularly strong in the north Cotswolds. William Leschallas, director, based in the Burford office, says the general economic uncertainty makes it "a very difficult Spring market to predict this year." However his office is "getting the interest across the board in terms of price range." Mr Leschallas says "I am pretty positive at the moment. I am not in the doom and gloom camp." The key to the market he says is the number of transactions not house prices. "What will make it difficult is if transactions dry up" he says.
The unique appeal of the Cotswolds both at home and abroad should help to underpin local house prices. Mr Leschallas says "there will be some price reductions" because they were "set too high in the first instance." He says "some clients are being more realistic than others." However, he draws a distinction between price and value. "The underlying values are not falling away" he says. Buyers' caution is reflected in the fact that in some cases more effort is required to get buyers to exchange contracts once an offer has been made. Competitive bids are thin on the ground but don't expect to find any bargains in the Cotswolds!
