Once In A Lifetime

The 2019 market’s hotspots and highlights in the South of England

- Penny Churchill

NOTHING succeeds like success and, after a jittery start to the year, a handful of significant country-house sales was enough to turn the receding tide and tempt vendors and buyers alike back into the open market. In what turned out to be a surprisingly good year for ‘once-ina-lifetime’ houses, leading country-house agents were heartened by the level of demand at the top end of the market for well-restored historic houses in tranquil, private locations—many for sale for the first time in decades.

‘One interesting fact,’ notes Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank, ‘is that, of country houses on our books at £5 million or more, 31% were sold to international buyers and 69% to buyers from the UK. It is certainly encouraging that international buyers—no doubt attracted by the weakness of sterling against the dollar and euro—still see the UK as a stable country in which to live and invest.’

The shiny private estates of north Surrey and south-east Berkshire are a mecca for international buyers, who usually match British money for the best houses in St Georges Hill, Wentworth, and Virginia Water. This year, however, UK buyers more than held their own in these exclusive enclaves and sales at upwards of £10m were not uncommon.

Knight Frank and Savills shared the honors in the sale in August of the imposing, 17,000sq ft Titlarks House on Titlarks Hill, Sunningdale, Berkshire, finding a British buyer at a guide price of £15m. Built as a joint venture between developers Kebbell Homes and Octagon, the luxurious red-brick house stands on a 1.4-acre plot and boasts a grand, 1,000sq ft entrance hall, seven reception rooms, and five dramatic bedroom suites.