Escape to the country
Working from home has made rural living even more enticing
HAS there been a seismic shift in how we want to live our lives? Estate agents think so and, intriguingly, time will soon tell just how much lockdown has affected the property market. City centre living in particular appears to have lost its lustre, with people thinking twice about the lack of open spaces and reflecting on the idea of ‘community’.
Nowhere is this more evident than in London, where inquiries to estate agents Savills about properties in Scotland soared by 71 per cent in May.
Housebuyers are now craving a garden, with those forced to spend long months in domestic confinement only able to dream of fresher air and wide open spaces.
And with ‘remote working’ now more prevalent, the addition of a home office has also become far more important than before.
Kevin Maley, head of residential agency in Scotland for Strutt and Parker, said: ‘Rural Scotland has even more appeal now than it did before lockdown.
‘The attraction of factors such as a garden, proximity to open space, woods within walking distance and fewer people per square mile has grown immeasurably.
‘Additionally, working from home has now become a viable option for many, reducing the need to live in a city or within a reasonably short commute of an urban centre.’
Londoners also do not need to be masters of arithmetic to work out that their property pound goes much further north of the Border.
Pitched at just under £500,000, Springhill House is a B-listed mansion in the quiet village of Douglas, Lanarkshire.
That same amount would get you only a two-bedroom flat within a mansion block at Shoot Up Hill in
Kilburn, North London. Just to rub it in, the Scottish property boasts five bedrooms, four public rooms, a secondary cottage, grazing paddock and four acres of grounds.
The main house is traditional Georgian in design, distinguished by sandstone mullions and quoins and lovely crow-stepped gables.
The drawing room has a bay window and wood-burning stove, while the formal dining room opposite is richly decorated, also with a feature fireplace.
The useful home office sits off the back hall, which leads to the kitchen and rear garden. Upstairs, the full landing has a pleasant sitting area which overlooks the front gardens.
There are also five bedrooms and a shower room, plus a bathroom a few steps down on the threequarters landing.
The separate Springhill Cottage could work either as a selfcontained granny flat or holiday accommodation.
Someone with greater imagination could transform it into a stylish base for home working, should the office in the main house prove too small.
The rear garden offers a sheltered inner courtyard, perfect for summer dining and barbecues.
Steps lead to the walled garden, featuring low dwarf box hedges, with symmetrical gravel paths lined by climbing roses.
The paths are flanked by carefully stocked beds and borders, strategically planted to provide year-round colour and rich summer scent.
There is also an orchard, wood and paddock which once had planning permission for constructing a private dwelling. This permission has now lapsed.
Douglas offers good access to central Scotland. The M74 provides links north to Glasgow and Edinburgh and south to England.
Mr Maley adds: ‘Changes in the way we work will have a fundamental impact on where we choose to live and, in terms of moving out of the city, Covid-19 has extended the search criteria.
‘Some are looking for a family home with a garden in rural towns and villages or a house in the countryside but still want to be reasonably close to a city.’
In that respect, Springhill House will be ticking all the boxes in our ‘new normal’.