Yahoo Finance Revealed: the house names that come with the highest prices
Properties named the “Manor House” or “Old Vicarage” do not just sound grand, they also sell for the highest prices in Britain, research reveals.
Analysis of property sales found that quintessentially English property names with historical ties were the most expensive.
Estate agency Savills found that the Manor House commanded the highest average price of £1.4m. Historically this was often the grandest house in the area, the researchers said, belonging to the Lord of the Manor in Anglo Saxon and Norman England.
More than two in five sales of properties named the Manor House sold for over £1m.
Second was the Old Rectory, with an average price of £1.3m. Properties with this name usually date from the Georgian, Regency and Victorian periods, Savills said. Over the past five years, half of properties sold with this name have been valued at £1m or more.
Houses named the Old Rectory were worth on average £200,000 more than properties titled the Old Vicarage, which are typically smaller manor houses or cottages.
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Lucian Cook, of Savills, said: “Certain English house names have held steady over hundreds of years, and tell us a lot about the provenance and history of the property – whether it be related to the feudal system, religion, mythology, our nation’s flora, and even beer.
“Still today house names instantly conjure an image, whether it’s the distinctive roof line of an oast house or the intricate timbers within a tithe barn.
“Once home to those with the highest status in society, the likes of the Manor House, the Old Rectory and the Old Vicarage still command the highest house prices, fending off the competition from more contemporary names such as Mallards and Timbers.”
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Phillippa Dalby-Welsh, head of Savills’ country department, added: “Manor houses, rectories and vicarages, in particular, benefit from central locations, typically sitting on the edge or at the centre of the village.
“Properties which historically symbolised high stature are also usually very well proportioned with high ceilings and large windows, and good sized gardens, perfect for modern-day families.
“The timeless appeal to these homes mean that they will never go out of fashion and will always be highly sought-after by buyers.”
