Financial Times Europe - 21.03.2020 - 22.03.2020

2 ★ FTWeekend 21 March/22 March 2020

I would like to buy an antique dining

table. Where do you

suggest I start?

Choosing a dining table is a

most enjoyable job. We are

talking about one of the

largest and most important

pieces of furniturein the

house. You will want a table

with personality, no matter

whether you are searching for

something grand and impressive to

fill a vast formal room, or a compact

number for the corner of a kitchen-

dining room.

Like a hefty moored ship with

crowds buzzing about it, the dining

table plays host to all our daily comings

and goings, from drawn-out weekend

breakfasts with affodils in jugs, tod

raucous dinner parties that last until

the early hours.

An antique dining table will have

already seen its fair share of action, and

its new owner must endeavour to

continue that ine. A table shouldl

witness excellent spreads and fantastic

feasts, board games and gossip, catch-

ups, daily dramas and disco dancing

(around and on top of).

Antique is absolutely the way to go.

When I buy a new piece of furniture,

I am often concerned about it getting

scuffed and marked. That is inevitable,

of course, but new stuff can start

looking very tired very quickly.

When a person moves into their

newly built glass box (à laGrand

are particularly appealing.)

So where to start? Your

choice will depend on the kind

of room your table is destined

to live in, and what sort of

materials you prefer. My tastes

are varied: two currently

available favourites are an Italian

brass table from the 1960s from

Gloucestershire-based Lorfords

(pictured), and an exceptional circular

Irish Georgian IV mahogany able witht

acanthus carved legs and paw feet from

Hawker Antiques (a sister company of

fireplace, lighting and furniture

specialists Jamb) in London.

When we moved to the country,

I pined for a classic wooden farmhouse

table. Having lived in London with a

mid-century marble-toppedmodel

for years, I wanted something wildly

different n our weekend home.i

Sleek pink marble made sense in

the city but for the country I craved

the warmth of wood and a more rustic

style. I had bleached-oak in mind —

our dining room is painted a brownish

mustard-yellow, and I liked the idea of

pale wood contrasting with thewalls (as

opposed to mahogany or rosewood).

It took a while to find “the one”: the

right kind of finish combined with an

attractive top and base. Plus he sizet

had to be right: big enough for six chairs

plus an extra couple at a squeeze.

In the end I found the perfect table

for sale at Rue des Fontenelles, an

antiques shop in Chagford, Devon. To

find it, I utilised one of my favourite

Like a hefty moored

ship with crowds

buzzing about it, the

dining table plays

host to all our

comings and goings

Wining, dining

and daily drama

tools:Sellingantiques.co.uk. This gem

of a website brings together nearly 500

antique dealers nd enables customersa

to search thousands of items from their

inventories.

So, if you are after a specific piece,

such as a bleached-oak farmhouse

dining table, you can search for it and

scroll through hundreds of bleached-

oak farmhouse dining tables for sale

across the country. It makes the hunt

easy, and there are plenty of similar

websites, depending on where you live

and the style and age of furniture you

are looking for. Chairish in the US is

fantastic for all kinds, and Pamono is

useful for mid-century furniture.

You will want to consider your dining

chairs next, but we will save these

for another column. For our country

house, I bought a set of Carimate

chairs designed by Vico Magistretti for

Cassina of Italy (a favourite model of

mine from the 1960s) on eBay to go

with our homely farmhouse table. I

had them spray-painted by a local

company in a violent shade of pea-

green gloss and to a mirror shine.

Plonking those in a glass box would

definitely freak out a minimalist.

For more images and links to Luke’s

recommendations, find his column at

ft.com/house-home

Luke answers readers’ questions on design

and stylish living every week. Email him at

[email protected] nd follow hima

on Instagram@lukeedwardhall

Luke Edward Hall

Readers’ questions

House Home

Inside

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advantages for overseas or non-UK-

domiciled buyers — principally inherit-

ance tax — says Edmund Fetherston-

Dilke, a partner at law firm Farrer & Co.

Before April 2017, shares of offshore

companies that held UK property were

not subject to UK inheritance tax —

charged at 40 per cent of a person’s

estateabove£325,000.Nowtheyare.

Ten years ago, using an offshore com-

pany was the obvious advice to give

when Fetherston-Dilke was helping to

buy UK property for clients from

around the world — often from jurisdic-

tions with no inheritance tax. “Frankly,

you would have been negligent if you

hadnottoldthemaboutit,”hesays.

But since 2013, the landscape has

changed. That year the government

introduced the annual tax on “envel-

oped dwellings” — or ATED — which is

payable by companies who own prop-

erty worth more than £500,000.

Homes liable for ATED priced between

£2m and £5m face an annual tax of

£24,800 — or roughly 16 times the top

council tax band in the City of West-

minster which, with 11,000 properties,

has the highest offshore ownership in

the capital. For homes priced above

£10m, the annual tax is £116,100; for

homes above £20m, the highest band,

the annual tax is £232,350.

Thenumberofhomesboughtthrough

offshore companies has declined since

the ATED was brought in,changes were

made to inheritance tax and capital

gainstax,andtherateofstampdutywas

increased for corporates, says Fether-

ston-Dilke. The price of London’s luxury

homeshasalsofallen.Between2010and

2013, the city had the fastest-growing

prime property market in the world,

according to estate agency Knight

Frank. Since 2014, after changes to

Continuedfrompage 1

stamp duty came into effect, prices have

fallen23percent.

“Thesedays,nopropertyprofessional

adviser in their right mind would steer

any client into buying through any kind

of corporate structure, unless they were

coming here to set up a rental business,”

saysFetherston-Dilke.

Criminalising hidden wealth

Anti-corruption campaigners were

given cause for celebration by the

Queen’s Speech in December. It

included the registration for overseas

entities bill, now in draft stage and

expected to come into law next year. It

proposes a public register of beneficial

owners for all land in the UK, essen-

tially ending the ability for people to

own property anonymously.

Cowdock of Transparency Interna-

tional is optimistic. “The draft legisla-

tion is very promising. When this is

passedintolawitwillcreateatoolthatis

useful to civil society as well as law

enforcement,”hesays.

Fetherston-Dilke says offshore com-

pany directors and trustees will be anx-

ious to flag the new rules to their ulti-

mate beneficial owners since, according

to the draft bill, failure to comply will be

acriminaloffence.

While directors and trustees will be

prepared to look after assets for cli-

ents for good reasons, he says, they

will not incur criminal liability. “And

then there are plenty of people who

are going to be caught up in this who

have entirely legitimate reasons for

wishing to conceal their identity.” For

example, several of his clients come

from jurisdictions with a risk of kid-

nap and ransom. Some have family

members who have already been vic-

tims. Others face attacks on personal

wealth from corrupt politicians at

home. “The innocent are going to get

swept up in this just as much as the

guilty,” he says.

For now, vigilance is key. “The level of

moneylaunderingintheUKisnotgoing

down because the methods that people

use to launder money are still available

to them,” says Cowdock, whose organi-

sation has identified 421 properties in

England and Wales — worth a total of

£5bn — that it believes have been

boughtwithsuspiciouswealth.

Back in the Caledonian Club, the

class of estate agents is finishing up

its training session. Each agent is

handed a certificate for taking part.

While some are worried about abiding

by the new legislation, and many are

anxious at the thought of delaying

deals, all say the new laws are a good

thing for the property market —

mostly because they are good for Lon-

don’s reputation.

“Our business is based on reputa-

tion,” says Andrew Quested of Belgra-

via’s Wellbelove Quested. If London is

seen as a safe place to invest, with a

good legal system, he says, then that

will be good for business.

NathanBrookerisdeputyeditorof

House&Home

Money

laundering

‘No property professional in

their right mind would steer

a client into buying through

a corporate structure’

(Right)

Nurali Aliyev

was named as

a beneficial

owner of three

properties

worth £80m,

including this

one (above),

which is the

subject of an

unexplained

wealth order,

on London’s The

Bishops Avenue

Getty Images; Ben

Cawthra/LNP

Designs) and starts

using their seven bits of

furniture (these kinds of

houses never have enough

things in them, although I suppose that

is minimalism for you), they must be

freaking out the entire time about how

their pristine white rugs will, without

question, look awful in approximately

five minutes.

But with antiques, who cares? What

is one more wine ring on a able thatt

has seen decades of banquets? In fact,

the more scuffs and marks, the better.

Age and time make things look good.

I am not only talking about furniture,

but also people. Or at the very least,

time makes furniture and people look

as if they have had a life worth living.

And, as we all know, scars are highly

attractive — as much on a person as a

good piece of furniture. (Important

note: I do understand thatnew items

will become antiques eventually, and

the journey to old-age has to start

somewhere. I like a mix of old and new

furniture, I just think old dining tables

‘When this is passed into

law it will create a tool that

is useful to civil society as

well as law enforcement’

(Left)Zamira

Hajiyeva, whose

appeal against

two unexplained

wealth orders

failed, spent

£16m over 10

years in

Harrods;

she must now

explain how

she bought her

£11.5m home in

Knightsbridge

(right)

Bloomberg via Getty Images;

Vickie Flores/LNP;

Ben Cawthra/LNP

LureoftheLoire

ProfessionalsfromacrossFrance

andEuropearemovingtoNantes

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