Out with the old money…

… in with the new. With top-quality estates in short supply, Rupert Bates finds the e-titans moving into the mansion. But how will this affect the gamebook?

New money is replacing old money on english sporting estates at an increasing pace with, according to Mark Lawson of The Buying Solution, the dominant buyers over the past 15 years being young, wealthy, self-made businessmen. “The ‘old money’ or inherited wealth that has run out has passed onto seemingly bottomless pits of ‘new money’ unlikely to sell in the next generation as a result of debt or divorce,” he says.

It conjures up images of e-titans in T-shirts who think game-shooting is a smartphone app, kicking ageing aristocrats into their ancestral mausoleums in a techs v toffs battle of the acres. However, these pups can not only teach old-dog estates new tricks they can keep them and their sporting traditions alive, bringing the boardroom into the countryside, recognising that it is numbers on the balance sheet not just in the gamebook that matter. “They know how rare an english country estate is and they will have spent a fortune during their ownership renovating, adding to the estate and creating a unique paradise.”

Lawson says over the past decade less and less top-quality country and sporting estates have come to the open market. “Over the past two years all the estates I have purchased on behalf of clients have been bought privately and off-market with prices ranging from £4.5 million to more than £30 million, which really demonstrates the need for access to the whole market.” Many vendors prefer confidential sales, so they can claim it was an offer too good to refuse rather than a financial imperative to sell that forced their hand, with the option of the open market if a buyer is not flushed out.

Another reason for the lack of supply is sustained low interest rates, allowing more traditional owners to hang on and fund their debts rather than sell with nowhere safer to stash any surplus cash.

“There remains a strong appetite for the very best in class estates. These would probably be within two hours of London to the west, unblighted and have a thousand acres of mixed farm and amenity land and a beautiful period, ideally not-too-large Georgian house in reasonable condition,” says Lawson. “Currently, there appears to be more interest from Middle eastern countries, I suspect as a result of increased tension in the region and the desire, long-term, to own a trophy asset that can be used in the summer months and during the shooting season.”

The bottomless pits of ‘new money’ are unlikely to sell in the next generation