Capitalise on buyers' remorse

Equestrian properties might be in short supply, but prices are back to normal after the Covid frenzy as the capital lures buyers again

- Madeleine Silver

ADMIT it: there was a glimmer of satisfaction when the stories started trickling in of urbanites who panic-bought in the country during the pandemic, who were now regretting it.

No street lights, substandard flat whites and a trek to the supermarket were among the grievances of this wave of “reverse movers”, who were calling time on their new lives in the sticks. You could have warned them about the mud and snakes of traffic behind a tractor.

The total spend outside the capital declined to £527.5m from £590.6m between December 2022 and August 2023 according to Knight Frank. They reported that London’s property market had been stronger than the rest of the country over the 12 months to December 2023, as the effects of the pandemic faded.

Rewind four years to the depths of lockdown, and searches for houses in the Cotswolds more than doubled; on Rightmove, Cornwall replaced London as the most searched-for place to live and there were tales of hopeful buyers trailing estate agents out of their provincial offices to suss out where they were taking contenders for viewings.

An estimated 700,000 left the capital for the countryside in the race for space, capitalising on the stamp-duty savings and a switch to home working.

Equestrian buyers – on the hunt for anything from a modest house with paddocks and a stable to a full equestrian set-up – found  themselves in the fiercest property market rural corners of the UK had seen in well over a decade. They were up against buyers willing to put offers in without a viewing, pay far over the asking price in sealed bids and shell out for equestrian facilities they had no intention of using just to bag the space.