In The Press… The appeal of swimming pools and tennis courts

We are delighted to have been quoted in today’s Sunday Times Home, about the appeal of outdoor entertainment features such as swimming pools, tennis courts, croquet lawns and so on for today’s country house buyer. Our Director, Jennie Hancock, said:

“Generally, families coming out of London with children pre university are now looking for English holidays in their home if they have the money to do so, where friends and family can come and stay and enjoy their outdoor entertainment features. For example in West Sussex, they’re looking for swimming pools, tennis courts, a substantial bbq area and a property that has the maturity of a garden that’s not overlooked. There is a definite change in the dynamics of what buyers are wanting now, and my perception of that is that people who would have normally travelled to Mallorca, Greece or the South of France spending £10,000 plus for their family summer holiday, are now looking at using that expenditure to highly invest in their outdoor facilities instead. For the waterside and rural villages in and around Chichester – for example Itchenor, Bosham, Lodsworth and Graffham – you would be looking at paying around £2million plus to have all of these features. However, for this type of client, I also recommend they look for houses around £1.5m-£1.75million where there’s plenty of land to dig out a pool and a tennis court. This doesn’t need to be costly as it can be done at a reasonable fee. The other benefit for doing it this way is that they pay less stamp duty too.”

Read the full Sunday Times Home article here (paywall).