The soaring cost of country life

The cost of joining the rural squirearchy in England's most popular counties is higher than ever before, according to a survey in Country Life magazine. Its Elite Property index, which tracks the prices of properties advertised in the magazine over the past ten years, shows 42% of all houses advertised between January and June this year are valued at more than £2m. The average price of a country house in Surrey is now £2.11m, compared with £1.8m two years ago. In Kent, the average price of a country house was £1.13m; today's average is £1.65m - an increase of 46%. Only last year, agents reported houses priced at more than £3m as "sticking like glue".

The soaring cost of rural property is also reflected in estate agent Knight Frank's country-homes index, which showed a significant revival in prices in the first half of 2004 after a poor showing last year, says David Sapsted in The Daily Telegraph. Country house prices rose by more than 10% in the first half of this year, compared with a 7% drop in the southeast during 2003 - a fall blamed on a lack of confidence during the Iraq war, the poorly performing stockmarket, the absence of City bonuses and a significant fall in the number of foreign buyers, especially from the US. Knight Frank said the strong recovery affected all areas of the country and all types of property, but especially those with a price tag over £4m.

What people really want these days are houses that are out of sight and out of sound of their neighbours, David Adams, the director of country sales at Hamptons International, told The Sunday Telegraph. But there are so few of these properties on the market that descriptions such as "access by foot" and "nearest shop 18 miles" are now casting the same magic spell on house prices as that once-golden phrase: "Easy access to the M40." For instance, Hamptons is advertising a five-bedroom farmhouse in Gloucestershire with "sensational views" but no mains water at an asking price of £2.25m (in this case, privacy is safeguarded by 150 acres of grass and woodland). Remote and derelict houses are often sold at auction, but even here bargains are becoming increasingly rare. Such properties might be offered at a low estimate but, says Adams, it takes only two bidders to decide it's their dream house and the price starts rocketing.

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