When a perfect storm hits

Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals

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RESEARCH compiled by Crispin Holborow and his team at Savills paints a fascinating picture of the workings of the upper end of the English country-house market in the 11 months from January to November 2024. Sales of houses valued between £5 million and £10m numbered 173 in 2023, but fell to 88 this year, whereas the number of houses sold for more than £10m showed a marginal increase: 25 up from 23.

The significant drop in the volume of deals done at almost all levels of the market in England in 2024—not only at the rarefied top end, but also for country houses valued at £2m or more—can be attributed to a number of factors, which combined to create a perfect storm. These included the cold, wet winter and spring, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the snap General Election in July, the October Budget and the US presidential election, not to mention high interest rates, increased stamp-duty rates and high mortgage costs.

As a result, vendors who didn’t need to sell this year are still waiting for the dust to settle and, as Ed Rook of Knight Frank so aptly put it: ‘Generally speaking, only houses in amazing condition or amazing settings found buyers in 2024.’ Given the ever-increasing cost of construction materials and labour, few buyers were prepared to take on a house in need of renovation, which might have meant sharing their new home with builders for months, if not years ahead. However, it wasn’t all gloom and doom, as a snapshot of some of the year’s most interesting sales reveals.

Home Counties highlights included the sale of Redwood at Penshurst, Kent, a handsome, six-bedroom country house built by Quinlan Terry in 1990 on an 18½-acre site that was once part of the Penshurst estate. Described by joint agent Will Peppitt of Savills as being ‘both practical and aesthetically beautiful’, the house came to the market in January 2024 with a guide price of £9.25m and sold six months later.