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.
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