Whether your property preference lies in the realms of Grand Designs or 60 second make over, there are homes on the market to suit everyone’s budgets, DIY desire and aspirations. Award winning Surrey agent Barton Wyatt, shows us a selection of their properties on the market offering the buyer to rebuild, refurbish or to move in clean and pristine.

The current property is a spacious detached family home offering versatile accommodation consisting of a master bedroom with en-suite bathroom and walk in wardrobe, guest bedroom with en-suite bathroom, four further bedrooms, family bathroom, entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, study, family room, utility room, kitchen/breakfast room, integral double garage, cloakroom.

Importantly it has a prime location on a sought after road on the prestigious Wentworth Estate, within walking distance of the village centre and main railway station, plus it is set in a superb plot of approximately 0.7 of an acre, it backs onto Greenbelt paddock land and enjoys a good degree of privacy.

As it stands Pindi House is an excellent family home but as Rupert Wyatt, Senior Partner of Barton Wyatt comments, “this house was built back in the 1950’sand today’s Wentworth home owner is looking for that unique home complete with the latest in modern technology, personalized space and a tailored design. Despite the price tag for the house and plot, we find that roughly speaking buyers will purchase such a house at the current market value, knock it down and rebuild the home for say, £1,250,000 or between £130 and £175 per square foot, the final value of the new home on the existing plot could reach £4 million, so there may be a profit to be made in rebuilding.”

Pindi House is on the market with an existing planning consent for a replacement dwelling to be built on the site of approximately 7,000 square feet.

If a full redesign and build is too much of a project then considering a home with extension potential could still be the way to add value to your home without the upheaval of a lengthy rebuild.

 

Silver Lining is a superbly presented family home situated in a much sought-after west facing plot of approximately half an acre on this private, quiet road within the Wentworth Estate. The property consists of master bedroom with dressing room and en-suite bathroom, guest bedroom with en-suite bathroom, three further bedrooms, family bathroom, entrance hall, cloakroom, drawing room, dining room, study, kitchen/breakfast room, conservatory/family room, utility room, integral double garage, beautifully maintained west facing grounds.

Silver Lining is situated on a plot amounting to approximately 0.5 acres with a great deal of space to the side of the property which lends itself to expanding the current dwelling, subject to planning consent. The rear of the property has been superbly landscaped and well maintained giving the plot a private and tranquil feel. With the large rear garden an extension would still be well proportioned within the plot. Wyatt comments, “Extending this home with a substantial 2 storey 1,500 sq ft extension for example, could add an extra £500,000 to the value of the home on the current values being achieved in the area. Quite often we find that new owners want to put their own stamp on a property and creating some extra personalized space is a great way to do this. Rarely do you purchase a perfect property so an extension allows the creative buyer the option to fashion their dream home whilst adding value to the property.”

 

For those of us who are happy to live without the dust and debris of home renovations, Eastways has already been substantially improved by the current owner. Situated in Sunningdale’s premier private road, this is a very spacious and interesting family home spread over four floors with accommodation of approximately 8,500 square feet to include a three car garage with a one bedroom staff flat over. It is set in landscaped gardens of just under one acre adjoining Sunningdale golf course.

 

There is an enormous amount of superb living space of offer at Eastways, the property consists of 5 bedroom and bathroom suites on the first floor, three further bedrooms and two further bathrooms on the second floor. There are five reception rooms, kitchen/breakfast room, utility room on the ground floor, cinema/games room with a link through to the integral garage on the lower ground floor, plus an independent staff flat over the garage with a bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchenette.

 

“Although buyers can add value to their homes by making improvements, it isn’t always possible to find extra cash on top of a house purchase in order to carry out improvements. Certainly there are many circumstances where home improvements are not a practical or possible option for the owners, for example a family with young children, in this instance buying your home either new or refurbished is the perfect option”, Wyatt adds, “Despite the host of media and TV programmes showing us how to DIY, picking up a paint brush at the weekend really isn’t everyone’s idea of relaxing home time! Purchasing a turn-key home doesn’t mean missing out on a bargain, Eastways has had its asking price reduced from £5,500,000 to £4,950,000 so buyers would be benefiting from very realistic pricing.”

For further information about the above properties or other similar opportunities in the Surrey area contact Barton Wyatt on 01344 843000 or visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk.

Local estate agency Barton Wyatt, situated in Virginia Water, has been awarded with a 5* award – the highest accolade in the category – as Surrey’s Best Estate Agent at the Daily Mail UK Property Awards 2009 held on Friday 16^th October.

There were 21 categories in the awards ceremony, up to two of the most outstanding entries in each category were awarded with 4* and only the best overall entry was awarded the prestigious 5*. As Barton Wyatt has achieved the highest grade they will be put forward and rejudged for the Best International Property Awards later in the year.

This is the 3^rd year in a row that Barton Wyatt have achieved 5* for Best Surrey Estate Agent, with the first year achieving an excellent 4*.

James Wyatt, Senior Partner, comments, “We are extremely delighted to once again win the Best Surrey Estate Agent award with 5*, it is always motivating for the company and staff to be recognised for their hard work and achievements over the last year. 2008 was an ailing year for estate agents but in 2009 so far we have seen a strong revival in the market especially at the lower end with increased confidence from both buyers and sellers. Across the year, we at Barton Wyatt have gained a leading market share highlighting the continuing boost in the market.”

For more information contact Barton Wyatt on 0134 484 3000, visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk or drop in to speak to your award winning local agents at The Estate Office, 2 Station Approach, Virginia Water.

 

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On the market:

St David’s Drive is a superb five bedroom town house in an exclusive gated development with south facing garden with wooded outlook to the front and the rear, situated a short distance from the popular community, shops and restaurants of this small village.

This deceptive spacious house offers generous sized accommodation over four floors. The sitting room has a coal effect gas fire and a large bay window with views onto the village green. On the ground floor, there is a kitchen/breakfast room with adjoining dining room and doors leading to the garden with faces south and has a pleasant wooded aspect.

On the first floor there are two bedrooms, one of these bedrooms being en-suite to the bathroom which is also accessed off the hall. On the next landing there is the master bedroom suite, which is a large sumptuous double room with balcony, overlooking the attractive central green. There is a dressing area which leads to the en-suite bathroom.

On the next landing there are two top bedrooms, one having an en-suite and both enjoying south facing views to greenery. To the front of the house there is a block paved driveway giving ample parking and the double garaged door is remote controlled. To the rear of the property there is a level lawned garden, which has been landscaped and designed for low maintenance.

Close by is Virginia Water Lake and Virginia Water Village with its two shopping parades with a good range of shops serving most day to day needs and the mainline railway station serving London Waterloo in approximately 42 minutes. The property is also conveniently located for the American School at ACS and there are other good schools in the area. Wentworth Golf Club is a short drive (approximately two miles) and has a fine golf course and leisure facilities.

For more information contact Barton Wyatt on 0134 484 3000 or visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With ‘New Homes Week’ for 2009 at an end, Barton Wyatt updates us on the new homes available in Surrey and why buyers should seriously consider investing in a brand new property.

James Wyatt, Senior Partner, comments, “As an agency situated in the heart of Virginia Water, we are lucky to find ourselves with a range of new homes on our books, from the developer new builds situated in Virginia Water itself and surrounding towns to the Wentworth Estate where new homes can be found on a somewhat grander scale.

It has often been the trend in Wentworth, for example, for buyers to seek out older homes on excellent plots in order to knock down and re-build to their own specification and design. In some respect these owners as doing just as developers are these days but on a smaller scale. New home developers today, provide properties, often on brown-field sites, with homes that suit our current lifestyles. This includes the apartments for young professionals, starter homes for families and the larger detached properties and town houses for families close to schools and amenities with the benefit of ‘all the work being done for them’. Even so new homes offer the budding DIY-enthusiast a blank canvas on which to stamp their own mark should they wish to. It is a myth that home renovations of older style properties is the only way to achieve this.

Just as a new bespoke Wentworth Estate home will include all the latest in modern home technologies from surround sound systems, integrated security systems, to ultra modern kitchen and bathroom furnishings and accessories, so can your new home from quality developers. It is also possible for buyers to have a say in the property design internally and externally. At Charles Church’s Cascades development in Virginia Water, for example, buyers are able to decide on the layout of non-load bearing internal walls allowing you to tailor your home to suit your particular lifestyle.

A new home today must adhere to strict government compliance rules on build specification resulting in far more environmentally-friendly properties with an excellent standard of finish. Most developers also offer buyers the peace of mind of build warranties such as the NHBC warranty.

Just as we thought we were all safe in our property purchases, gazumping has made a return to the market. There have been reports of recent and sustained house price rises in certain markets resulting in owners dropping buyers to get the best possible price for their homes. Equally, with interest rates at their lowest mark since the Second World War, those who have been sitting out the recession are now finding themselves financially in a position to move. With house values overall having also dropped buyers looking to move up the ladder are finding that they can afford a lot more for their money and so in some cases are out bidding their rival buyers to secure their homes. Of course with new homes complicated property chains are avoided as you are buying homes without a chain direct from the developer. For many this is a huge appeal to reduce the ‘stress’ of moving home.

Barton Wyatt’s reasons to buy ‘new’:

·         More environmentally friendly than older properties

·         Can include the latest in technology and bespoke additions

·         No long chains to be caught up in

·         Developer incentives and buyer rewards

·         Most come with 10 year warranty protection

·         Homes built to suit peoples’ lives today

·         You don’t need to renovate to put your ‘stamp’ on a property, new homes come as a blank canvas

 

For more information on buying your new home, large or small, contact Barton Wyatt on 0134 484 3000 or visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk. Information on New Homes Week can be found at nhw2009.co.uk.

 

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The Cascades is a prestigious new development by Charles Church, boasting a range of well-planned accommodation built to the highest of specifications in Virginia Water, Surrey.

Within The Cascades, a stunning four bedroom, three storey townhouse can be purchased with flexible accommodation that allows buyers to design their own layout by deciding upon where any internal walls that do not bear a load are built. The result is a bespoke property that perfectly fits personal requirements and the needs of day-to-day life.

 

The spacious property comprises of a master bedroom with en-suite bathroom, guest bedroom with en-suite shower room, two further bedrooms, family bathroom, drawing room, kitchen/breakfast room, utility room and ground floor cloakroom. It also includes a single integral garage and its own private garden.

 

An exceptional family home built to exacting standards and completed in 2009 with spacious accommodation set over 3 floors with interesting design features such as the use of balconies and a stunning split level kitchen/breakfast/family room. The property is superbly situated on the Wentworth Estate, a delightful and tranquil environment yet just half a mile from the picturesque shopping parades of Virginia Water.

Shamwari was built for the Managing Director of Bridgewater Estates for his own occupation and completed in early 2009. The house has been built to exacting standards using the finest materials throughout. The property follows a contemporary theme with modern bathroom suites and kitchen and is well suited to a contemporary family lifestyle and entertaining on a grand scale with a magnificent kitchen/breakfast/family room with a split level and unique semi circular family room area.

Over the triple garage is a staff/Au-Pair annexe accessed via an independent staircase. All the principal rooms face due south across the rear of the property with doors opening onto the patio and onto three balconies across the rear on the first floor making the very bet of the sunny southerly rear aspect.

Shamwari enjoys an enviable location in up Gorse Hill Road, a safe and tranquil no through road. The house sits well in it’s plot which amounts to approximately half an acre in all. Gorse Hill Road is located just opposite the picturesque shopping Tudor parade in Virginia Water with its excellent shops, restaurants and mainline railway station. The property is approached through electronically operated gates on brick piers over a shingle driveway providing ample parking for many cars, a path leads to the side of the property onto an expansive split level terrace across the rear with steps onto the lawn bordered by well stocked shrubbery beds. The garden is totally private from adjoining properties and enjoys sun throughout the day.

For more information contact Barton Wyatt on 0134 484 3000 or visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk.

In 1969 when ‘What the Butler Saw’ was first staged at the Queen’s Theatre, London, the comings and goings of owners in a managed home was at the height of comedy, but household staff are far from a joke, today, hosting your helpers can add value to your home.

 

Barton Wyatt, estate agents for the prestigious Wentworth Estate and the surrounding Virginia Water area in Surrey are well acquainted with the extra staffing needs of home buyers. James Wyatt, Senior Partner, insists, “10% of all our customers have specific household staff requirements, the most popular being nannies or au pairs to assist with the children. Housekeepers’ accommodation is also regularly requested especially for foreign owners who aren’t in residence for much of the year, their housekeepers would then in turn managed cleaners and gardeners etc to keep the house immaculate all year round.”

 

Staff quarters or household accommodation ranges from in-house set ups with bedrooms usually at the top of the house, over garage annexes, basement conversions, stand alone cottages in the grounds or off-site accommodation where owners rent a nearby property or indeed own a second home nearby.

 

Wyatt continues, “the over-garage annex is most popular with owners, it tends to be more private for the family whilst being conveniently on-site and there are many cultures that insist on separate quarters. Arabs for example choose annexes or stand alone properties as culturally it isn’t acceptable to have staff above you in a home. In the home, an in-house set up will add the least value to the property too because it isn’t as popular a choice with buyers, without doubt a separate stand alone annex will add the most value, at least 5% to the value of the property. In properties say worth £2 million this equates to an additional £100,000 to the asking price.”

 

“Of course affording extra staff in your home is a costly arrangement with an au pair couple adding £15,000 a year to your household bills including salary, car usage, utilities, heating and water etc. Nanny’s will demand a salary at least £30,000 a year and housekeepers’ salaries can reach £40-50,000.”

 

Employing household help often occurs when families are expatriated overseas, the same applies when people come to live in the UK. Today people tend to spend more hours in the office and so to maximize their time spent at home with the family, staff are taken on to maintain the smooth running of the home and cover the more menial but essential aspects of home ownership.

 

The British are amongst those who choose household assistance, along with Kazakhstanis, Arabs and Russians and their homes tend to demand an asking price of at least £2 million such as Caspian House in Sunningdale. This 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom family home has a triple garage with accommodation over and is set in landscaped gardens of 0.6 acres. It is ideally located close to the Sunningdale golf course as well as village shops and amenities. Caspian House is on the market for £2,595,000.

 

For more information and to discuss your home requirements large or small contact Barton Wyatt on 0134 484 3000 or visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk.

… in only 10 weeks across May and June all but 2* of the Runneymede Homes, Saville Place apartments were sold via local estate agent, Barton Wyatt. First time buyers, downsizers and even investors have been the hungry property audience for this development capitalising on the zero stamp duty threshold and prime location in Englefield Green Village, Egham.

With prices from £174,500 the high specification one and two bedroom apartments are not all subject to stamp duty one of the key appeals for the buyers, however Judith Hogg-Fox, one of the buyers comments, “The stamp duty threshold is always in the mind when one is looking at this price band although I would not strictly have bought only based on the threshold but more on the actual property itself”. All of the 10 apartments include an open plan, fully fitted kitchen/living room and stylish bathroom. The master bedroom in the two bedroom also incorporated an en-suite shower room.

James Wyatt, Senior Partner at Barton Wyatt, comments,

“For the first-time buyer Saville Place offers affordability and value for money, a phrase rarely used throughout much of the 2007 property peak. First-time buyers have for a long time been priced out of the market and now that property prices have stabilised and finance has become more available, many are jumping at the opportunity to get on to the ladder. Equally those struggling in the current economy or with changes in circumstance are looking for spacious and well finished homes to downsize to, without losing those home comforts they have become accustomed to.”

Even so, it may seem surprising to hear that investors in the Surrey area are still looking for buy-to-let investments, selecting only the best quality and prime location apartments to dip into their pockets for. Saville Place in Englefield Green Village is close to the Royal Holloway University of London meaning an annual demand for student lets in the area, a reliable choice for any investor; this is one of the main reasons Judith Fox-Hogg invested, she continues, “I already have successful rental properties in this area and it’s an area I know very well”. One of the first time buyers is also a student at the University.

For the last 2 apartments and other similar properties on the market contact the local experts, Barton Wyatt on 0134 484 3000 or visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk.

The combination of a weak pound and the prediction of the UK property market bottoming out have been drawing international buyers from all corners of the world, however it isn’t just London city lights appealing to overseas buyers. A niche location in Surrey has been carved out as a safe haven for foreign nationals, seeking the best of all worlds.

The Wentworth Estate, in the heart of Surrey has long been synonymous with wealth and exclusivity and today it is this distinctive living which has drawn international buyers mainly from Russia, Kazakhstan and South Africa. Bricks and mortar in the UK is deemed to be a safe investment compared to fluctuating oil shares for example, in Russia, on which their economy is dependent. According to James Wyatt, Senior Partner of Surrey estate agency Barton Wyatt, “Wentworth is a secure and safe environment for high profile, wealthy overseas investors which is one of its greatest appeals. For the last 3 years or so, we can count on international buyers making up at least 10% of all sales and predominantly they buy on the Wentworth Estate.

“For the wealthy families, there are exceptional schooling opportunities nearby with many renowned private schools such as Eton College, St George’s Ascot and St John’s Beaumont only a short distance from Wentworth. In addition, there are two international schools, ACS in Egham and TASIS in Thorpe.”

International buyers certainly haven’t been put off by the lack of credit from our troubled banks, nearly all the buyers pay with cash for their luxurious UK pads; properties with asking prices ranging from £3m to £10m or more. The likes of Highgate House currently on the market on the Wentworth Estate with its imposing formal pillars framing the Georgian exterior, 6 bedrooms with walk in dressing rooms and en-suites set in Wentworth’s roomy 1,750 acres will appeal to international buyers and with a price tag of £4,750,000 is an affordable cash purchase.

James continues, “Property features we regularly have requests for, include home security, staff quarters, high ceilings and general high tech gadgets. If their chosen home doesn’t have the immaculate finish they are looking for then there will be no qualms in completely refitting to their standards, despite many of the houses being newly built, complete with £100,000 kitchens”.

Due to supply and demand for this level of house, it seems that despite many of the majority buyers today seeking property bargains and negotiating hard on the asking prices, on the big ticket houses negotiations are frugal with 10% reductions on the prices being achieved at very best.

The Wentworth Estate has it all for international buyers, first of all an international community, the security, close proximity to London, private and international airports, and importantly it offers the size and specification of property that only a £10m cash buyer would expect!

For more information contact Barton Wyatt on 0134 484 3000 or visit www.bartonwyatt.co.uk.