Testing time for builders in Buckinghamshire
Lowing herds may be something of a rarity in Stoke Poges these days and nor are there many weary, plodding ploughmen – it’s more likely to be a driven, ambitious actuary or computer whiz kid who hurtles home in a gleaming BMW at the knell of parting day in 2008.For the countryside that inspired what is surely the world’s most popular poem, Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy in a country churchyard’, has become one of the most desirable residential areas, commanding property prices that would have driven the English poet to an even earlier grave (he reached only 54).
Here the Thames Valley region of Linden Homes has built Wyatt Place, on Bells Hill, seven five-bedroom homes, the cheapest of which is £650,000. By kind invitation, Show House was allowed a 24-hour test drive of the development.
Most housebuilders will concede, when pushed, that it’s only by living in a new home that small design faults can be detected. On this occasion, Natalia Gameson and David Hoppit abandoned the safety of their offices and ventured into the unknown pastures of Buckinghamshire, west of London, in the first of a regular online series.
He saysThe priorities for any home-hunter will always be price, quality and location. Can we afford the house, is the property nice to come home to, and is it where we would like to live?
Let’s deal with the price first. Speaking as one whose first home set him back rather less than £5,000, perhaps I might be excused for emitting a gasp when told that I would have to shell out almost £700,000 to live here.
The acid test, of course, as local agents Andrew Riley of Hamptons and Richard Kew of The Frost Partnership commented, is whether the houses are selling. The answer – yes, four of them already – revealed, unsurprisingly, that it was the two with the larger gardens that went first.
I for one simply don’t accept that people are demanding small plots. In these days of global warming, the garden is the most important ‘room’ in the home, where summer entertaining is becoming almost an art form.
There was certainly room for al fresco entertaining in style at the Wyatt Place houses, but no space for a vegetable patch in which to grow your own either for kicks – as many are now again choosing to – or to combat rising food prices.
That said, builders are pretty hard pushed these days to find building land of any kind. Here, Linden Homes bought a group of tired bungalows for redevelopment, so the site was brownfield land. Behind the development, with access by a footpath alongside, is a huge playing field, beloved by those wishing to undertake jogging, dog walking and other wholesome pursuits.
To ease the pain of the price, Linden has agreed to pay the reviled stamp duty costs, which in the case of these homes is a massive £26,800. The company has also engineered a comfortable part-exchange package, assuring buyers of 100% of the agreed value of the home they have to sell, thus eliminating estate agent fees and HIPs costs.
But what of the homes themselves? Well, they’re built with a pleasant and mellow pink stock brick and capped with pastel shade tiles, with finials and plain but attractive barge boards. All have generous bay windows, greatly increasing the feeling of space in the dining rooms; and I also liked the ‘soldier’ courses of bricks above the other windows.
Located on a road that is busy at rush hour, the sound of traffic was eliminated by double glazing, and hardly perceptible from the back garden.
By making full use of the second floor, all but one of the houses has a floor area of a little more than 2,100 square feet. There are four bedrooms and one bathroom on the first floor, the principal bedroom boasting an en suite shower room. I bagged the top floor (fifth) bedroom which also has an en suite unit, and, despite banging my head on the sloping ceiling during an early morning comfort break, felt very comfortable.
The layout of the ground floor will probably appeal more to the lady of the house. The kitchen and ‘garden room’ is nearly 20 feet long, the latter giving plenty of space for a six, eight at most, place dining table, with doors leading straight into the garden. The kitchen itself is, as one might expect of a £700,000 home, blessed with granite worktops and fitted appliances that include fridge/freezer, microwave, dishwasher, double oven and five-ring gas hob. The adjacent utility room has a fitted washing machine and tumble dryer.
Beside the utility room is a small cloak room, so with the study at the front the entire depth of the house is an impressive 40 feet or more. I would have preferred a slightly larger study (a couple of feet perhaps) and a slightly smaller kitchen, but again that is a personal view as opposed to a criticism.
I was delighted to see the provision of a separate dining room, across the hall from the study. Even though most meals will be taken in the garden room beside the kitchen, a separate dining room is one of life’s essentials, even if it is not used exclusively for dining.
Located nearby is the famous Stoke Park Club, scene of a number of films, not least Goldfinger back in 1964. Membership of this exclusive club and golf course, with the 1790 James Wyatt designed house as its centre, has always been a privilege, ever since its opening in 1908. There are many a various options, but each requires a joining fee. A golf, health and racquet membership for mum and dad on a seven day basis will cost a joining fee of £11,750 with an annual subscription of £9,520. There are, fortunately, many cheaper options if the full works are not required.From the club house, which is also a hotel, the view across the lake includes a beautiful church tower. This is St Giles, parish church of Stoke Poges, inspiration for the famous Elegy and burial place of Thomas Gray.
The church yard is, as one might expect, a tranquil and beautiful place. Adjacent are acres of memorial gardens, with lakes and fountains and avenues of small individual gardens. These are open to visitors and are well worth a weekly visit.
Would I like to live at Wyatt Place in Stoke Poges? I can certainly think of worse punishments! At present there are no shops within easy walking distance, but another larger development nearby includes plans for a library and shops.
If education is a priority there are good local schools and, of course, a certain little place named Eton (also made famous by Thomas Gray) is just down the road.
Transport links to the site are excellent. London is a mere 30 minutes by train from nearby Gerrards Cross, while by road, the M4, M40 and M25 are each a fingernail distant on the map, bringing Heathrow, Gatwick and even Stansted airports within relatively easy reach.
She says
My first impression of this property was somewhat coloured by its price tag. “That’s extortionate!” is a phrase that wasn’t a million miles away from my thoughts on learning that living here would oblige the purchaser to find £670,000 for the privilege.
At first glance, it didn’t really look like a house worth a sum comfortably straddled between half a million and a million. Its layout seemed rather compromised - I felt it couldn’t possibly be big enough to house the six-plus occupants the property’s five bedrooms indicated it can accommodate. The dining room, at 11.39 square metres, wasn’t big enough to seat more than four, while I felt the kitchen could only squeeze in six at a time – and that’s restrained, well-behaved diners able to sit very, very still - at a push. At £316.93 a square foot, it seemed a lot of pounds were needed to fund this little bit of house.
But on leaving the property for a drive around the local area, the steep price tag swiftly became more justifiable. As Hoppit opines above, it is stunningly lovely in patches. I was particularly charmed by Stoke Poges’ church memorial gardens, and found the obvious civic pride residents have in their town very refreshing. I was also taken with the patch of recreation ground at the house’s back – watching dog owners promenade across the field, leads in hand in the early morning light, I too felt I could certainly live comfortably in this area.
A quick session on Rightmove when I got back into the office also revealed that the house was actually something of a bargain for the area. Properties in the Stoke Poges pocket with five bedrooms or more generally seem to head way north of an £800,000 marker, while homes of this type and size generally command between £600,000 and £700,000 for four-bedroom houses. Linden has also thrown in stamp duty as well in this case, saving the prospective purchaser nearly £27,000, while also offering part exchange at favourable rates – 100% of a property’s value - if you can’t sell your home in time.
Enhancing this value for money within is the property’s reasonably high specification, which - most importantly from the perspective of a female used to living with a time-poor actuary who is against cleaners on principle – appears very easy to clean.