Rod’s hit for £3.4m
Star finally sells his Essex mansion after three years (to a footballer, of course!) but only by dropping £7.5m asking price
AS Rod Stewart might have sung, the price cut is the deepest. But it seems to have had the desired effect.
The singer has sold his Essex mansion to footballer Andy Carroll and his reality TV star fiancee.
But Sir Rod was forced to slash the original £7.5million asking price by almost half to shift the property, finally selling for £4.1million – a £3.4million loss.
He put six-bedroom Wood House on the market in 2016 but struggled to sell it despite reducing the price three times. His model wife Penny Lancaster has previously blamed Brexit and the ‘property stalemate’.
But last month they finally found buyers – Carroll, 30, and his fiancee Billi Mucklow, former star of reality show The Only Way Is Essex. The couple and their children Arlo, three, and 18-month-old Wolf have already moved into the Epping property
Carroll may have been attracted by the fact that the Grade II-listed manor house has its own a full-sized football pitch, on which Sir Rod has allowed players from Newcastle United, Liverpool and his favourite team Celtic to train.
And he and Miss Mucklow are likely to bring their own unique style to the property, after revealing their previous home in nearby Chigwell featured zebra-print wallpaper and a mirrored ceiling.
Pictures from inside that property – dubbed ‘Carroll Castle’ – revealed pink satin sofas as well as animal print cushions to match the wallpaper.
Miss Mucklow also had her own neon pink beauty salon known as ‘Billutifuls’, complete with a Snow White mirror with the words ‘mirror, mirror on the wall’ written in pink lights.
Carroll, who is said to be worth £19milion, and Miss Mucklow put their old home up for sale for £5 million in January.
Their new manor house has seen Sir Rod, 74, through two wives and several girlfriends and includes a boating lake, tennis courts, a swimming pool and huge gardens. He bought the house and 28-acre estate for £1.2million in 1986. Land Registry documents show it was purchased by Carroll for £4,080,000 last month.
A sales brochure for the property states: ‘This is a splendid and imposing historical period residence with conspicuous appeal – the interesting mix of Jacobean style with detailed pargetting [ decorative plastering] to the exterior walls and full height leaded light bay windows with heavy oak mullions is at once impressive.
‘Wood House is set within truly stunning grounds which have been beautifully landscaped to ensure resplendent colour and year-round interest.’
Sir Rod decided to sell Wood House – where Wi n s t o n Churchill stayed during the Blitz – because he and his family have moved to a nearby 18th century mansion they bought in 2013 for £4.65million. He also has homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and Los Angeles.
A spokesman for Carroll declined to comment.