Financial Times Europe - 19.10.2019 - 20.10.2019

2 ★ FT Weekend 19 October/20 October 2019

Nathan Brooker

On the market

House Home

Estate agents say

there is a tonne of

cash waiting to be

invested in London

What a difference

a decade makes W

e know more about the

surface of the moon

than we do about the

bottom of the ocean. I

was reminded of that

this week as House & Home prepared

to publish the second and concluding

part in our series on global property in

the 2020s (pages 8 and 9).

The first part was one of the FT’s

most-read stories last week. But the

new decade is still more than two

months away. Predicting what will

happen over the next 10 years is easy

compared with trying to work out what

will happen over the next 10 weeks.

Property markets around the world

have looked fragile for some time. In

London, house prices are falling at

their fastest rate in a decade, according

to Halifax data. The same is truein

Manhattan, where third-quarter prices

for apartments are down 12 per cent on

the same period last year. In Europe,

there is a threat of recession, and in

Hong Kong, owing to months of civil

unrest, the world’s most valuable real

estate market could be at risk.

But new data suggest that — in the

UK at least — there may be a surprise

or two before the year is out.

Even as we hurtle towards another

deadline to leave the EU, any number

of Brexit outcomes still look possible. A

survey by the Royal Institute of

Charted Surveyors (RICS) this month

found the number of buyers and sellers

in the UK dropped in September. Of

course they did. Who in their right

mind would commit to buying a

property in the present conditions?

Well, here is at least one surprise: the

number of wealthy people buying in

London is going up, not down.

New data from LonRes show the

number of third-quarter transactions

in London’s most exclusive postcodes —

that includes Mayfair, Belgravia,

Knightsbridge and the rest — increased

14 per cent on the same period

last year, with buyers negotiating

an average discount of 11 per cent

off the original asking prices.

Estate agents have been saying for

the past three years that there is a

tonne of cash waiting to be invested in

London property the moment a Brexit

deal is signed. I never believed them —

but perhaps they were right all along.

Could this be an early sign that buyers

with that cash are circling?

Digging into the data reveals that the

only price bracket in which

transactions did not rise in the third

quarter was homesabove £5m. They

were down nearly 30 per cent. Marcus

Dixon, head of research at LonRes,

thinksthis could be down

to anticipation that the government

is about to cut stamp duty onthe

UK’s most expensive homes, and

buyers are choosing to wait it out —

anticipation that was fuelled on

Monday hen Sajid Javid, the UKw

chancellor, announced a new Brexit

budget in three weeks’ time.

Wealthy buyers hoping to hoover up

deep discounts may be able to wait, but

for other Londoners, sitting on their

hands is not an option.

A buddy of mine is looking for a

modest house in east London. He

and his wife have a baby on the way,

which gives them a hard deadline.

They were gearing up to make an

offer on a place a couple of weeks

ago. He sounded excited — they had

worked out the perfect amount: low,

but not disrespectful.

He called the agent back a few days

later. The seller already had two buyers

locked in a bidding war and the house

was going to sell for way above the

original asking price. “Never liked the

place anyway,” said my friend in a huff.

“The living room was a right shoebox.”

For him, his young family and the

thousands of buyers like them, the

next 10 weeks will be an annoying

distraction. What matters to them is

what happens in the next 10 years.

Nathan Brooker is deputy editor of House

& Home

competition, then pop down the road

for sushi and a spot of sound healing.

I have fallen for the humble places:

the excellent antiquarian bookseller in

our nearest town; Whichford Pottery up

the road and its excellent café, the Straw

Kitchen; the tiny artists’ supplies shop

in Stow-on-the-Wold.

The locals have welcomed us,

although recently we received a moder-

ate telling off from a gamekeeper, who

instructed us to slow down to a crawl on

our lane to avoid mowing down his prize

pheasants, which seemed fair enough.

(We have grown to love the birds and

their extremely slow, mad waddling.)

Decorating has been an enormous joy.

From the outset, our landlord agreed

with our plans, which was lucky because

we had many. Can we paint this bath-

room arsenic green, ceiling and all?

Should we cut down half of this hedge?

How about a faux malachite painted

finish on this fireplace?

The brilliant and kind estate manager

has been the most invaluable help,

setting us up withdecorators, curtain

makers and gardeners. The house

already being kitted out with good bath-

rooms and a sturdy kitchen helped

enormously. We were left with the fun

bits: painting, accumulating furniture

and planting roses. Duncan and I agree

on most things and, bar the odd

heated discussion about banned lamp-

shade shapes and which lurid chintzes

to place where, we have loved creating

this new interior.

We arrive every weekend in a car

groaning with goods: an armchair

upholstered in a striped-green leopard-

print fabric from Colefax & Fowler

bought at auction for next to nothing;

pairs of carved gilt wood sconces, newly

framed prints picked up in Rome and

Venice; dusty terracotta pots, piles of

books banished from London and bars

of my favourite soap.

There is still a lot to do: neighbours

I want to meet, extra furniture to

buy and the garden, which is large

and rather scrappy, requires urgent

attention. We have no gardening experi-

ence, but we are planning a meadow

and have had raised beds built for

vegetables and deep flower beds dug

in the hope of creating a big, blowsy

display next spring. Gardening seems

like a mystical art, so bedtime reading

is all about when, where and how to

grow things.

We already have fond memories: the

day we picked up the keys, I arrived late

from the railway station to find Duncan

chilling champagne in a colander. We

fired up the Stanley for the first time and

shoved something in for supper, smoke

started filling the room and soon after

the hot water gave up. We laughed,

decamped to the nearest pub for fish

and chips and slept that night on an air

bed with an upturned cardboard box for

a bedside table.

Continuedfrompage 1

One Saturday in July, Duncan’s

mother and her husband arrived to

stayafter a seven-hour drive from

Edinburgh, a practically blind and

ancient poodle strapped in one back

seat; my fabulous 30th birthday

present — a stone replica of David’s

head the size of a toddler — strapped in

the other.

In August, two great friends visited

from Virginia and we spent a joyful

week in a Cotswolds tornado of garden

tours, pub lunches and trinket hunts.

Wonderfully, we discovered a new

fruit tree in our garden every week over

the summer. A glut of plums led to Dun-

can whipping up several giant Kilner

jars worth of plum brandy. Perfect to

drink next year, we said, delighted by

our forethought, yet curiously an entire

jar had disappeared by the end of the

Americans’ visit.

One Saturday with friends visiting

from London, we filled baskets with

sweet, jewel-like blackberries plucked

from hedges in neighbouring fields.

“They are free! And there are loads of

them! Everywhere!” we kept screeching

at each other, as if this show of nature

had been put on especially for us.

In September, my family came for

Sunday lunch (roast chicken, industrial

quantities of potato salad and two giant

blackberry galettes). Seeing Duncan

race the length of our new garden with

my ecstatic three-year-old niece and a

spaniel in tow filled my heart with joy.

I knew then that we had done the right

thing, that we were in the right place,

that we were making a new home.

I would like to thinkwe will have a

country house for some time.If all goes

to plan, we will spend more and more

time here. (I am already eyeing up an

outbuilding with the hope of converting

it into a studio space.) Eventually we

want to buy a place. But for now we are

happy without a plan. Besides, our

house belongs to an estate, so it is

unlikely it will ever become available to

buy. That half-ruined tower is out there

waiting for us.

Tosee‘BeforeandAfter’picturesofLuke’s

cottage,gotowww.ft.com/cotswolds

Lukeanswersreaders’questionsoninterior

designandstylishlivingeveryweek.Email

[email protected]

himonInstagram@lukeedwardhall

Hisweeklycolumnreturnsnextweek

Townhouse,

countrynous

(Top) the dining

room with pale

pink ceiling;

(above left) the

living room

awaiting its new

ottoman; (above

right) a mirror

reflecting a set

of Picasso prints

Photographs by Sam Pelly for

the FT

I soon discovered that

gargoyle-topped lodges

do not often pop up

for rent on Rightmove

Inside

Design

Ditch the plastic

Page12

Ataleoftwocities

Prices in Paris and London diverge

Page4

Interiors

Sir Kenneth Grange

shapes up

Anglepoise lamps

Pages14&15

Askthearchitect

Fire-proofing and future-proofing

Page13

Architecture

Infill houses don’t mind the gap

Pages16&17

Gardens

Beauty and beasts in Denmark

Pages18&19

RobinLaneFox

Chasing a baroness in Italy

Page20

House & Home Unlocked

FT subscribers can sign up for our weekly

email newsletter containing guides to the

global property market, distinctive

architecture, interior design and gardens.

Go to t.com/newslettersf

Luke’s address book

cBrownrigg, 14 Long Street,

Tetbury, Gloucestershire

brownrigg-interiors.co.uk

Housed in a three-storey

Georgian townhouse in

Tetbury, this is one of our

favourite shops to browse.

Set up by the charming

Jorge Perez-Martin more than

20 years ago, it offers an

eclectic mix of antiques and

decorative pieces, such as

a 20th-century alabaster

model of the Taj Mahalor

a 17th-century Spanish

baroque cupboard.

cChristopher Moore, Unit 01,

World’s End Studios, 132-134

Lots Road, London

thetoileman.com

One of the first things I craved

for the cottage was asquishy

sofa covered in a fabric from

Christopher Moore, knownas

the Toileman. (We plumped for

an exquisite Oriental floral

design in blush pink.) Printed

in England and India,

Christopher’sfabrics and

wallpapersare copies of 18th

and 19th-century French and

English designstaken

from the company’s

archive.

cTat London,tat-

london.co.uk

The brainchild of Charlie

Porter, previouslyat

House & Garden

magazine. She offers an

eclectic selection, from

framed 20th-century

oil paintings and

toleware sconces to mid-

century mirrors and 1970s

coloured glass bud vases. Tat’s

prices are reasonable and

stock is replenished

often.

cTwig of Tetbury,

46 Long Street,

Tetbury,

Gloucestershire

twigantiquesandi

nteriors.com

Owner Su Daybell

shows off a

fabulously theatrical

selection of pieces in

her moody, magical Tetbury

shop: stone urns bursting with

foliage; an18th-century Irish

mirror with dripping icicles

rendered in giltwood; a giant

19th-century bronze Romulus

and Remus. A recent addition

to our cottage was a glittering

grotto chair with a shell for a

back and dolphins for legs

(pictured left). Frankly, we’d

never seen anything more us.

cAbbott and Holder,

30 Museum Street, London

abbottandholder-thelist.co.uk

Beautiful and interesting

affordable pictureswas the aim of

Robert Abbott and Eric Holder’s

partnership when they first dealt

in 1936 during the Great

Depression. Most of this

Bloomsbury gallery’s stock of oil

paintings, watercolours, drawings

and prints dates from 1750 to the

present day andare priced

between £100 and £5,000,making

it a great source for budding

collectors. (My heart isyearning

for a Stephen Tennant pen and

ink, available at the gallery.)

LEH

MChâteau de Bagatelle, Abbeville,

France, €1.265m

WhereIn the

Hauts-de-

France

region of

northern

France,

about two-

and-a-half hours from the airport in Paris.

WhatAn 18th-century 10-bedroom

stone castle.

WhyThe châteauretains many original

features but needs updating.

Whogroupe-mercure.fr

MUpper West Side, New York, US,

$4.9m

WhereOn a

corner lota

few blocks

from Central

Park. JFK

International

Airport is

about an hour’s drive.

WhatA Flemish redbrick townhouse

dating from 1886 with five floors.

WhyPlans for the house propose more

than 6,200 sq ft of living space.

Whoelliman.com

MSt Luke’s Chapel,London,£7.5m

WhereIn

Chelsea;

Heathrow

airport is 35

minutes

away.

WhatA

Grade II*-listed chapel built in 1850 to

service Old Brompton hospital.

WhySold with planning permission to

convert into a three-bedroomresidence.

Whorussellsimpson.co.ukand

struttandparker.com

Nicola Davison

HOT

PROPERTY

PROJECTS

Futuretrends

How we will live in the

coming decade

Pages8&9

UKproperty

The other dramas in Westminster

Page6

OCTOBER 19 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 16/10/2019- 17:47 User:elizabeth.robinson Page Name:RES2, Part,Page,Edition:RES, 2, 1