Latest news with #estateagent
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Home with 'panoramic' fell views for sale in Whitehaven
A home with "panoramic countryside and fell views" has been listed for offers over £320,000 in Whitehaven. Located on the edge of a development, the detached house has four bedrooms, and a sandstone frontage. Facing the front of the property, the lounge features a bay window and fireplace. Front-facing living room, with feature fireplace (Image: Zoopla) Adjacent to this is a versatile room that is currently being used as a playroom. According to the estate agent, it could function as a second sitting room, or games room, depending on the buyer's needs. The estate agent highlights the "stunning open-plan kitchen and diner" as a standout feature of the property. Open-plan kitchen diner, with doors to the rear garden (Image: Zoopla) The kitchen is equipped with integrated appliances, including a built-in AEG oven and grill, microwave, fridge freezer, and dishwasher. French doors open out to the garden. Upstairs, there are four bedrooms. One of the property's four bedrooms (Image: Zoopla) The master bedroom, described as a "true retreat", features a bay window with views and an ensuite shower room. The family bathroom is said to be in "like-new" condition, offering both a bath, and a separate shower. Outside, the property features a blocked paved drive providing off-street parking for two cars. Versatile room on the ground floor, currently being used as a playroom (Image: Zoopla) The garden is designed to be low-maintenance, with a large patio area and pergola, allowing for alfresco dining. A lawn and fencing create a private space for family gatherings and relaxation. Whitehaven town centre is located a 10-minute drive from the property, and offers a range of amenities. Rear garden, complete with swing set (Image: Zoopla) The sands of St Bees beach are also located around 10 minutes away. For families, the majority of schools in the area can be reached within a 10-minute drive. Prospective buyers are encouraged to arrange a viewing to fully appreciate the features of this property. Call First Choice Move Ltd on 01946 437388 for more information, or to arrange a viewing.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The uniqueness of a village is what really arouses me
Maybe its an age thing, an ongoing mid-life crisis if you will, but we recently had the annual conversation about moving to pastures new. Despite not really meaning it, and going so far as to use the local estate agent whose time we happily waste to see how much our drum would be worth, we had a forced introspective as to how much we really enjoy living in a village. Having resided in towns and the big smoke, villages are, if mine is a yardstick, very much engrained in a 'us and them' mentality. St Albans, which is not a million miles hence, always seems to get the funding and the 'glory' despite us paying the same, if not more, council tax than they do, for which we get in return not an awful lot. Want to save a few quid? Turn out the villages streetlights at night but keep St Albans' on. Want to dump a new unaffordable housing development in the vicinity? Go to the village, where the voter base is not so harmful on our chances of re-election, and so it goes on, as the little guy gets smashed from all sides, and ultimately, inevitably, loses some of the battles. Our local 'big' car park, frequented by those popping into the shops for a pint of semi-skimmed or a box of takeaway chicken is soon to become a paid for exercise which will add further nails into local businesses' coffins who struggle to keep their heads above the waterline at the best of times. Why? No one seems to know, its not near a station, but such is a village's lot: to take their beating and not forget to say thank you, please for the privilege of being milked like the cash cows we are. It is the uniqueness of a village that arouses me. You actually know, and speak to, your neighbours despite never really feeling like you truly belong, but that's ok, as they were born on their Nan's kitchen floor in Kings Road, have lived here man and boy, and they remember when it was 'all fields'. Pop to the Co-op and, at any time, dawn or dusk, there is the woman wearing pyjamas, a dressing gown and slippers, but that's the new norm and she has now become something of a monument to village life. There's the chap who dresses like a cowboy and, rumour has it, 'lives in' the roundabout. The traveller family whose horse is often left to graze on the verge in the cul de sac and the local slimming club whose members never seem to lose any weight except for from their wallets, once they enter the ramshackle, but endearing, community centre. The online community forums are the pulse of the village life, and many now choose to post anonymously, only to be outed as we all know each other so well, so we can fathom who the poster is from the tone of the post and the inevitable spelling mistakes. And then we have the village idiot who, I am sure, may well be me. I prefer the term 'jester' but, either way, reputations are easily made in the village and hard to dismantle should they become embedded. But move back to the smoke? Not on your nelly. It's nice to give your neighbours a cheery wave, and trust them to look after your cats when away, and even share a cold tinny in the back garden at the first sign of sun, as you all rub along nicely as they aren't the enemy, are they? That mantle lies with the local big boys and we have our pitchforks ready in unison for when they come for us once again, as they plunge us into darkness and charge us for daring to support local businesses as we doff our caps in village style semi-complicity… Brett Ellis is a teacher
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Mill from Bryan Adams' Robin Hood music video for sale
An old mill that features in the music video for Bryan Adams' song (Everything I Do) I Do It For You is up for sale with an asking price of £75, is featured performing the power ballad next to the silk mill, built 500 years ago near the village of Holford in Somerset, in the pop video from film maker Julien hit topped the charts for a record 16 weeks in 1990 and served as the theme for hit movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."It's quite an unusual property but it's an incredible place, truly magical and it has a lot of local folklore around it," estate agent Ross Walls said. Mr Walls said the property would not be suitable for someone trying to turn it into a home, but would be ideal for someone who "wants to park up and go for a wander and escape".He added: "Within the music video, you can see the ruin directly behind where he [Adams] was singing." The main stipulation for where the music video would be filmed was that Mr Temple - who lived in the Quantocks - could "walk to work"."The producer didn't think it would be such a big hit. He lived locally and said it would need to be filmed close to where he lives," Mr Walls to the BBC in 2021, Mr Temple said: "Little did we know that it was going to be on Top of the Pops for months."I was kind of embarrassed by the length it [the video] went on, because it's not my finest hour as a film-maker."Founded by Huguenot refugees - protestants who fled France and Wallonia (southern Belgium) from the 16th to the 18th century - Holford's silk mills once buzzed with industry, powered by the Holford nestled in the Quantock Hills, the mill fell into disrepair in 1860 after two fires destroyed is now ivy-clad and close to woodlands purchased by Paul McCartney - donated to League against Cruel Sports - as a sanctuary for wildlife.
Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Slashed prices and desperate sellers: inside Cornwall's flooded second homes market
For the past 11 years, Debbie Pugh-Jones has owned Napier Cottage, a two-bedroom property overlooking a river in the quiet village of Golant near Fowey in Cornwall. 'It was a dream of mine to go and live by the coast, and when I found this cottage, I thought it was perfect,' she says. Lying at the mouth of a deep estuary, close to the open sea, Fowey is a pretty harbour town with narrow streets winding through the town near the water's edge. Counted among some of the Cornish coastline's hotspots, it's long been popular with wealthy second home owners; in the past, this kind of property would have been snapped up. Keen to move nearer to her son in Bath, Pugh-Jones put Napier Cottage on the market last August for £425,000. There were no bites. Since that time, the asking price has been reduced first to £375,000 and now to £350,000. Still, no one has come forward to buy it. 'During Covid, I could have sold it for £440,000. I'm now on my fourth estate agent and, since August, I've only had three viewings and no offers.' She lives in the house full-time, but it would make a perfect holiday home – and therein lies the problem. 'The trouble is that there are just no buyers,' she adds. 'First, there was the general election, then the Budget in the autumn and now all the increased taxes. It's not an expensive house, but the wind is blowing in the wrong direction for second home owners. When I speak to others in the village, a number are thinking of selling up.' Cornwall is sometimes called the 'second home capital of England'. In Poluran, a village close to Pugh-Jones's home, more than half of houses are second homes or holiday rentals, according to research last year from the Lanteglos by Fowey parish council. The attack on second home ownership has come thick and fast in recent months. In last year's Budget, buyers of second homes were hit with a 5pc stamp duty surcharge, up from 3pc. In addition, the furnished holiday lettings tax regime, which gave tax breaks to landlords who rented out fully furnished properties, was removed this year. This means that those properties which once attracted 10pc capital gains tax now meet the standard CGT rate for residential property, currently 24pc. Finally, and perhaps most punitive, Cornwall council (like others) now makes second home owners pay double council tax, a move that was also introduced in April. (There is a 12-month exemption for those actively marketed for sale or let, which some experts have suggested is a loophole that homeowners are using to avoid the tax rise.) 'Flooded market' Justin Knight is a senior valuer at The Property Shop, the estate agency in Fowey that is marketing Napier Cottage. It has two other offices in mid-Cornwall: Bodmin and Lostwithiel. While those two are operating in a normal market – that is, neither location is dominated by holiday homes – it is in Fowey where properties are not selling. The same is true in two other holiday home favourites: St Ives and Carbis Bay, says Vicky Jones, of estate agent Keller Williams. She describes a 'marked increase' in the number of second homes and holiday properties coming to the market. Kevin James, of Bradleys estate agents, says supply is up 22pc since May 2024. He believes that Cornwall's property market is entering a new phase as tax reforms 'begin to reshape the second home landscape'. Many agree. 'Fowey is a pretty sailing town, not a working fishing port which functions throughout the year, and the impact has been noticeable since the measures were announced last year,' says Knight. 'People who paid 'Covid prices', when the rush from towns and cities that saw prices here leap in some cases by up to 20pc, are reluctant or can't afford to sell at today's values. And now that the market is flooded with houses for sale, there's a double knock-on impact.' Figures from Rightmove show that properties in Fowey take five more days to sell this year compared to 2024, and that prices have slipped 1.5pc in the last year. Truro-based estate agent Ian Lillicrap of Lillicrap Chilcott keeps a keen eye on second home hotspots both within and beyond his patch, including the Cotswolds. 'The market is flooded in all the obvious areas. It's clear that many who bought properties to rent as holiday homes took out mortgages when rates were low and when they could offset the costs against returns.' Interest rates since then have of course risen, and now they face lower demand and much higher costs. 'They've had a culture shock and a rude awakening.' 'Fabulous bargains' This fall in demand has mainly hit the middle of the market; those at the top end can afford to wait it out – and pay the increased council tax. Jonathan Cunliffe, who runs his own agency, says at the top end of the market it's back to normal after the frenzy of the pandemic. 'There aren't many owners who need to sell at any cost. Most will wait until the market recovers, so it's difficult to see a complete collapse in prices.' James says that while those who relied on tax efficiencies to make ownership viable are selling up, those prepared to weather 'short-term policy headwinds' will continue to invest. It is properties valued between £250,000 and £700,000 that have seen the highest drop in enquiries, says Philip Norgan of Smart Estate Agent in Penryn. Some clients are adjusting their prices, but others are holding firm 'because they can't afford to go as low as necessary'. Lillicrap says there was a flurry of properties looking to exchange before the changes came in at the end of March, with a particular keenness from those in 'old money' areas such as Rock in north Cornwall. Some of these owners have had the house in the family since the 1960s and have seen a huge gain in value in the intervening years. A house that was worth tens of thousands might now be several million, attracting a significant tax bill in its wake. Figures from Lillicrap Chilcott paint a picture of how the market has shifted. Of the last 60-odd properties sold since early April, 66pc have been to local buyers moving within Cornwall. In 2022, that figure was 50pc. Second home buyers have dropped from 25pc in 2022 to just 14pc. 'As I see it, those buying a second home with their head rather than heart will find it a lot less attractive than it was 18 months ago,' says Lillicrap. For those with the means to buy, vendors are ready to sell. Lillicrap has just taken on a two-bedroom apartment by the marina in Port Pendennis in Falmouth. 'The owner said that only a few weeks ago she would have asked £600,000, but as she's in tune with what's happened across the nation, she's putting it on the market for £499,950,' he says. 'There are some fabulous bargains to be had,' adds Clare Coode, of buying agent Stacks Property Search. 'Canny agents are aware of this, and I have never seen more off-market opportunities than I have this spring.' At the top end of the market, buyers are enjoying what Josephine Ashby of John Bray Estates calls 'a rare abundance of choice and a selection of property that may not reappear on the market for generations' as owners reduce prices. And people are still buying, such as those who snapped up an off-market clifftop property in Polzeath on the first viewing.
Times
10-05-2025
- Business
- Times
My former drug den fixer-upper turned out to be Pope Leo's old home
A year ago this month, a Polish builder bought a fixer-upper in a suburb south of Chicago. The neighbourhood is not particularly ritzy, with its vacant houses and shops that have mostly gone out of business — other than a Chinese takeaway and the Speedy Drive Thru Food Mart, which looks as if it was built to withstand an armed assault and possibly already has done. But Pawel Radzik, who makes his living doing up houses, felt the little place had potential, and last week his renovation was very nearly complete. He was accompanying his heavily pregnant wife to a doctor's appointment when his phone rang. On the line was his estate agent, who had some big news: Radzik was in possession of the new
