Sotheby’s Realty

Once-loved historic estates and country piles look set for a future of neglect and decay, because today’s mega-wealthy buyer isn’t interested in purchasing a slice of history: they want a new-build.

But why, and what does this mean for Britain’s stately homes?

A report in the Daily Mail quoted estate agents who said they were seeing more newly-built multi-million pound homes in the country coming to the market. In some cases they were shiny Grand Designs, in others they were designed to look like a historic home – but were actually only a couple of years old.

It said they were being marketed as the stately homes of the future, often with plenty of stone floors, exposed wooden beams, leaded windows and antique fireplaces – so the modern millionaire could imagine their property outlasting them and being passed through the generations.

Strutt and Parker, for example, is selling a six-bedroom, six bathroom house in Bibury near Cirencester, which from the outside looks like a traditional Cotswold property, but is just a few years old. Inside it boasts light, space, double-height ceilings and a swimming pool. That one is priced at £4 million.

Sotheby’s Realty, meanwhile, is selling a £6.45 million new-build in Oxshott (pictured), described as ‘classically inspired’ and ‘Palladian style’, and is a mansion with ambition. Everything shouts ‘money’ from the shiny state-of-the-art kitchen, to the sweeping double staircase, and the swimming pool bathed in light.

These homes appeal to buyers who find that historic mansions are unsuited to modern living, with small rooms and dark corridors, rather than open-plan kitchens at the heart of the home. Owners struggle to find a decent space for the swimming pool, gym and solarium, and don’t want to compromise.

In many cases, even when they want to buy somewhere with a bit of history, if it has too much history, it’s likely to be Grade I or Grade-II-listed, and therefore the restrictions on what they can do with the place get in the way of their designs.

Then of course, there’s the maintenance involved in running an older property – and the extra costs for heating draughty rooms and lighting dark corridors.

What does this mean for historic homes?

Without the cash being ploughed into older properties, it begs the question of what is going to happen to the historic houses of the UK. At the moment more than 4,500 grade II-listed buildings are already at risk: around 6% of them are empty, and another 7% are only partially occupied.

There are several organisations who are devoted to maintaining much-loved heritage properties. English Heritage has an army of volunteers who spend their spare time rescuing properties from ruin. The Landmark Trust, meanwhile, does a brilliant job of renovating and caring for historic buildings, funded by the fact they are let out as holiday properties.

However, they can only care for a fraction of this country’s historic homes. By far the majority rely on passionate and wealthy people who are prepared to invest. Jamie Theakston was one such owner. As we reported in May he has owned Grade-I-listed Wings Place in the village of Ditchling for the last decade. He had dreamed of living in it when he went to the primary school opposite, and considered it a privilege to be able to care for this 16th century property. Theakston, it seems, may be a dying breed.

Without owners like this, prepared to invest the money, who knows what’s going to happen to expensive, historic homes like this in future…