Few people have a better insight than local buying agents. If you are a
celebrity looking for a home, agents such as George Wade of Property Vision
are your best friends. They have the inside story on how the rich and famous
go about securing their West Country crash pads.
“As other destinations have become high profile and glitzy, such as parts of
the Cotswolds, well-known people have been forced to look further afield to
find a private retreat,” explains Wade.
“The West Country is very large, and so there is a greater chance of finding
a property with a degree of privacy.”
Buying agents are useful because they act as a screen between a celebrity
buyer and an unsuspecting vendor. They use their contacts to find and
inspect the best houses on sale and then shortlist them, without ever
revealing that the prospective purchaser is a big name with a budget to
match.
Eventually, the celebrity will visit the shortlisted homes – sometimes in
disguise to avoid attention. Then the buying agent will enter into
negotiations on the chosen property.
This expertise doesn’t come free, of course. An agent will typically take two
per cent of the purchase price of a house. It might not sound like much, but
that’s £20,000 for a £1 million house.
And for a star on the hunt for a rural retreat, this is the very bottom of the
price range. Though budgets vary, few stay in six figures. Comedian Jennifer
Saunders reportedly spent £1 million on her house and 45 acres in Chagford,
Devon, while her comedy partner Dawn French apparently spent double that on
a 40-room mansion at Fowey in Cornwall. From there, prices shoot up. In
2004, Madonna and then-husband Guy Ritchie spent about £9m on their 1,100
acre estate on the Wiltshire/Dorset border.
Notwithstanding those famous purchases, buying agents say the most favoured
locations are Exmoor, spanning north Devon and Somerset; the south coast of
Dorset including uber-wealthy Sandbanks; and the South Hams in Devon. This
includes sailing resorts such as Dartmouth and pretty coves and rugged
cliff-tops in Cornwall.
The A-list must-haves include plenty of land to indulge in anything from quad
biking, like Rik Mayall in Devon, to horse riding, like Martin Clunes in
Dorset. Buying agents are typically also asked to ensure the internal layout
is flexible enough for intimate gatherings and lavish parties alike.
Sometimes there is a more exotic request. The agents are too discreet to name
names, but say an American star is currently on the hunt for a home in
Devon, but it must have a helipad and a hangar for his chopper.
Meanwhile, a British soap star refused to move into his new Somerset
home until a 10m-diameter hot tub had been installed in the garden.
Agents are agreed that all celebrities want strict privacy. That rules out
homes built close to a road, in any kind of modern development, anywhere
with public rights of way through the land, or in a dip which can be
overlooked by adoring fans or camera-wielding paparazzi. Kate Bush has
recently had to beef up security at her home in Chilverstone, near Salcombe,
for just this reason. Some have gone even further, says George Wade:
“When Madonna bought the Ashcombe Estate on the Dorset border, there was a
footpath down the drive and past the main house. She managed to get it
temporarily diverted during her ownership. Otherwise there would have been a
constant stream of fans walking past and taking photographs, all within the
law,” he says.
Another buying agent, Gideon Sumption, who handles celebrity queries in Devon
for Stacks Property Search, says well-known buyers love their bling at
first, but then give in to the laid-back West Country lifestyle. “They come
for peace and the chance to get muddy without anyone staring. Their homes
are often comfortable but unflashy farmhouses, well-protected by land. To
start with many are kitted out in a glitzy, un-Devon way, but after the
arrival of children, the sound system usually makes way for stables,” he
says.
Another reason celebrities love the West Country is that the locals are
unfazed by fame.
“There’s no celebrity culture. People are judged on what they do, rather than
any wealth or fame they have,” says Julian Fellowes, who lives in
Dorchester, Dorset.
He does his bit for his area by serving as Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Dorset,
and sponsors a mobile cinema to visit rural areas of the West Country. He’s
not the only one giving something back to the community.
Doc Martin star Martin Clunes – whose show is filmed in the Cornish village of
Port Isaac – sells kisses at an annual charity fair held on his 20-acre farm
in the Dorset village of Buckham. It’s uncertain how much money this raises,
but it’s in a good cause.
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, who own a home on the edge of the Cornish
port of Polperro, often lend their names to local fishing charity
fund-raising events. And political pundit Andrew Marr is patron of Exmouth
lifeboat station near his Devon holiday home.
Though they might use their profile to help local charities, celebrities
choose the West Country because it allows them to lead a relatively normal
life. This is according to Stacks buying agent, Amanda Ake.
“You’ll see them on the touchline at school sporting fixtures shouting loudly
for their team and embarrassing their children. Just like non-celebrity
parents,” she says.
With this kind of attitude, celebrities are unlikely to change the unspoilt
nature of the West Country that attracted them in the first place.
No star is too big to appreciate the area’s charms. Just consider the food
that Brad Pitt sent out for when he was staying in the Cornish port of
Falmouth this summer. Not caviar, not foie gras, but a humble pasty.
You can’t get those in Beverly Hills.