New Homes & Developments THE FINAL FRONTIER

The most expensive new homes reconcile the fashion for big, open plan, combined use rooms, with the need for additional quiet places for home schooling and working. They have what everyone wants: space.

For months now, media commentators have made much of our apparently growing desire to “connect with nature”. To some extent, this is certainly true. Many more people are going for long country walks, watching nature programmes on television and buying bird feeders. But might that be just because there has been little else to do?

Even our most well-heeled new homes buyers have had their wings clipped. First class is less of a privilege, when you have nowhere to fly to. They have to stay at home. For the very wealthy, that home can be much closer to their vision of perfection, than the rest of us can afford. So what do they buy? Rarely is it a remote country lodge with woods, meadows and streams ripe for rewilding with butterflies, bats and beavers. Most often, it is what the rest of us want: somewhere private, convenient for both attractive countryside and a nice town, expertly designed and built to a lasting, beautiful standard. The only real difference is space. Wealthier buyers, buy much more of it. Indoors.

How much space is that? Research by insurers LABC Warranty suggests that UK homes built since 2010 average just 730 square feet – the lowest in 90 years. The Cotswold house shown on the previous page is well over six times that. The kitchen alone is over 900 square feet. It also has space for ‘essentials’ such as a utility room, en suites for every bedroom and separate dressing rooms. The Wilmslow house shown above has more than twice as much space again: enough for a guest wing, sauna and gym. There is even a subterranean games and cinema room, in which to watch all those nature programmes.

High Demand For High Quality

At slightly less illustrious levels, high demand for new homes persists, even in the face of periodic restrictions on personal movement. All buyers considering homes over £500,000 have at least double the UK average house price to spend and tend to be experienced home owners. We expect the products of the more specialist house builders who cater for them to continue to sell swiftly and at a premium.

HELP-TO-BUY CHANGES

One of many property-related changes effective from 1 st April 2021 is that new rules apply for the government’s Help to Buy scheme, which provides five year, interest free loans for new homes buyers of up to 20% of the purchase price (40% in London). From 1 st April, the scheme will be restricted to first time buyers only and new, regional maximum purchase prices, will apply. Outside London (£600,000), these range from £186,100 in the North East to £437,600 in the South East.