Year-to-date performance figures across this firm’s 40 or so offices show reassuring stability within our country house sales. In almost every instance, with the exception of total properties listed (up 14%), we are a few percentage points up on both last year and the year before. This includes new buyers registering with us and contracts exchanged. Arguably, this is to be expected: mortgage rates have slowly improved for two years now, as have real wages and availability of properties to buy.

What the numbers don’t show is how hard-won that progress has been. As a rule, every successful transaction has involved more viewings, more queries before a sale is agreed and, in most cases, more monitoring and nurturing of dependent sales, than for many years. In some respects this is welcome. Negotiations tend to be calmer, those moving home have a better chance of finding what they really want – and we get a chance to shine, where others fail to do so. There is much for which to be grateful.

INNOVATIVE BUYERS
We are appreciative, too, of the sheer innovation shown by many of our buyers, to make the country house they want, more affordable in the face of interest rates which, though lower, remain high compared with the recent past. Cost-mitigation strategies include maximising office-at-home tax allowances, securing rental income from annexes and paddocks suitable for ‘glamping’ and investing immediately in solar power systems (inexpensive panels plus plenty of roof space apparently make for highly attractive returns).

After some years of being shunned, we are also seeing more interest in houses in need of some modernisation. Simply from a tax point of view, this makes sense: a lower price means less stamp duty. Going beyond this point, more savvy buyers have been looking for houses which fall within their work-todo ‘sweet spot’. This involves thinking about the value of each aspect and what kind of tradesperson will be needed to do the work.

IMPROVING AVAILABILITY OF BUILDERS
One knock-on effect of the slowdown in construction by the major house builders has been greater availability of the local tradespeople they often employ as subcontractors. HMRC figures suggest that three-quarters of self-employed builders (including plumbers, painters & decorators and carpenters) operate below the VAT threshold. This makes them ideal for minimising the cost of renovation work which can be broken down into smaller, discrete projects – a feature which also allows new owners to spread that cost across a time scale that suits their budget.

TIME TO UNDERSTAND THE HOUSE
Buyers of houses that need updating have the advantage of living with their new home and seeing how their lifestyles and tastes fit with it and with its potential. This invariably prompts changes to their original intentions and minimises the risk of doing anything they later want to undo. It also results in a home that is both more affordable and more specific, in style and function, to its owners. Thus the ‘sweet spot’ for our savvy buyers is a country house which is dated yet structurally sound, habitable whilst work is done and which has versatile spaces – outside or in – which provide options for adapting to future needs, be they for family, business or personal passions.

WORK AND PROGRESS
Looking ahead, it seems probable to us – and, more importantly, to most of our buyers and sellers – that the current ‘backdrop’ of positive, if painfully slow, improvements in mortgage rates, salaries, availability of homes to buy and of builders, is set to continue over the months to come. This is good news: the current market is not for the impatient and it is hard work for us. But it is one which makes it easier for buyers and sellers to make good decisions and to get what they want.