St. Mawes Update

"St Mawes" by Ant Smith

A quick check on the properties I've already listed in St. Mawes - one new price reduction and a few of new places to add; nothing seems to have sold:

1. New price reduction: FF Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - £235,000 & £230,000, £225,000, £225,000
2. Conversion Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £325,000, £275,000
   
3. Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - OIRO £300,000
   
4. Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - OIEO £305,000
5. Detached Bungalow - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £319,950
6. Mid Terrace? - 3 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £330,000
7. New Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathroom - Asking price of £395,000
8. Detached Bungalow - 3 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £395,000
9. Semi-detached Cottage - 3 bedrooms OIEO £395,000
   
10. Detached Barn - 1 bedroom, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £399,950
11. Bungalow - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £420,000
    
12. End of Terrace - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £425,000
    
13. New on this list: Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathroom - Guide price of £440,000
    
14. Detached Cottage (+ 1 bed Annexe) - 4 bedrooms - Guide price of £495,000
15. FF apartment - 4 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £525,000
16. New on this list: Detached Bungalow - 2 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - £549,950
    
17. End of Terrace - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £550,000
    
18. GF Apartment - 3 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £650,000
    
19. Detached House (+ Annexe) - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £659,000
20. New on this list: Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Guide price £695,000
    
21. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 4 bathrooms - Asking price of £745,000
22. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £795,000
23. Detached House* - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £925,000 (b,c,d)
24. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 4 bathrooms - Asking price of £925,000
    
25. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £1,250,000
26. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Guide Price of £1,500,000, £1,250,000
27. Detached Bungalow - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £1,450,000

Is all of Cornwall for sale?

One of my own photos from a Christmas display in a Bristol estate agents.

Having been amazed at the increase in the number of properties available within 20 miles of Truro 10 days ago there seems to have been an even more remarkable increase over Christmas - don't these estate agents ever sleep? Now on rightmove their search claims that there are 899 properties for sale within just 5 miles of Truro! I got bored looking for the end number on the within 20 miles of Truro search - last time it had come up with 236 not over 900!

Can everyone's before-Christmas sale have fallen through? Could there really have been that many in the pipeline? Is the whole of Cornwall for sale?

Or has rightmove changed its algorithm for nearness?

Or have some of the agents tried to expand the areas in which their properties appear - this is actually what I think is happening...

As a check for future searches here are some numbers of properties available at specific locations, on rightmove, using "this area only", no minimums or maximum, all types:

Bodmin - 220
Boscastle - 23
Bude - 132
Cadgwith - 66
Coverack - 4
Falmouth - 344
Fowey - 58
Hayle - 142
Helford - 3
Lamorna - 3
Lamorna Valley - 71
Liskeard - 184
Lizard - 66
Marazion -32
Newquay - 486
Padstow - 62
Penzance - 328
Perranporth - 78
Polperro - 30
Porthcurno - 71
Rock - 11
Saltash - 160
Sennen - 13
Sennen Cove - 0
St Agnes - 41
St Austell - 387
St Ives - 221
St Just - 50
St Mawes - 30
Tintagel - 34
Truro - 297
Wadebridge - 98

Truro Continued 1

Christmas in Truro_S12443 by Ennor

On Friday this search on Primelocation came up with 215 properties for sale, today, just 3 days later the number has zoomed up to 295. An increase of 37%. Which seems rather a lot to be going on just before Christmas.

Maybe their algorithm has changed (I find it frustrating that its so hard to define the location one is interested in on primelocation)... so trying rightmove's search which allows one to select both radius and "added to the site" times - I find that in the last 3 days there have been 72 properties added to rightmove within 20 miles of Truro. And that there are now 236 in total within that area. (Not including Sold STCs.)As neither of these sites lets one put a limit on the number of bedrooms I can't tell how many of these are properties which have effectively squeezed in under the wire to avoid paying £350 for a HIP.

And just in case anyone who has avoided commissioning a HIP is reading this - just think how dated your particulars are going to look next month when all the new properties will have one. Its as bad as having photos of spring flowers still blooming in the autumn to show that you haven't sold yet.

t.b.c....

Truro

Truro Cathedral by trueclearlight

My next-door neighbour has recommended Truro as a lovely small city. I did a flickr search and this photo was the first up - lovely isn't it! And it was uploaded on the 19th January - which just happens to be the birthday of the first person I knew from Cornwall - I still remember her delight at university when we had snow - she'd rarely seen it before. So all good omens so far :-)

Primelocation currently has 215 properties listed in and around Truro. (Plus 30 that are under offer). Though their idea of near Truro is rather larger than I'd like at least with their map view its clear where things are. -very useful for someone like me planning to move to an area where my geography is even more patchy than usual.

In the dream category are:

At a guide price of £1,150,000, location given as Truro though looks like its nearer St. Agnes, somewhere near Mithian/Mithian Downs

A secluded country retreat with letting income situated in a hidden valley near the coast. 4 bedroom period cottage, second dwelling, holiday cottage and apartment, garage and workshop, gardens with trout stream and paddock.

Stags

It has 6.7 acres some of which is woodland.

At a guide price of £1,100,000, St. Erme

Formerly part of the neighbouring Resugga Farmhouse, Starlight Barn is much more than just a beautiful barn conversion. It comprises a spacious 5 bedroom family home with three letting cottages and an office/studio, perfect for those looking for that idyllic country living.

A former grain store has been carefully and sympathetically converted to provide a pleasant and flexible country home with much attention to detail and complemented by its gorgeous south facing gardens and grounds including a paddock, arboretum and 3.5 acre field suitable for horses.

Savills

The names of the buildings are very new age: Starlight Barn, Light House, Sunlight Cottage, Moonlight Studio.

In all about 6.5 acres.

...t.b.c

An acre or two in the Penwith peninsula

"Cape Cornwall in November" by polandeze

• Newmill, Penzance - 4 bedrooms,2 reception rooms, 1 bathroom, 2.2 acres - Guide Price of £595,000
  
  Looks well-kept, though the stables aren't shown - they are often the least attractive aspect of such places! There is a static caravan too - not so promising after all... maybe it could be replaced by a chalet or something more pleasing?


• Worvas Farm, ST IVES - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 1 bathroom, 5 acres - Guide Price of £495,500
  
  A smallholding - described by the agent, thus:
  

  There is stabling for horses, small piggery, vegetable growing areas, outside WC and a paddock of approx 4.5 acres which as you stroll through reveal beautiful views of the sea and coastline. The cottage has been partially renovated and work is still in progress.

  There is a caravan on site - so that renovation might be very much still in progress.
  
  Shame there are no floorplans. Is the only bathroom downstairs? If so that means a bedroom would have to be sacrificed to put one upstairs.
  
  And I'm wary of places that are only partially renovated having been taken to one by an agent only to discover that it was impossible to stand-up in two of the "bedrooms" - really no more than floored attic space in which they made their children sleep... lets hope this one is better than that!
  
  This might be a place that could have a serious eco-overhaul as its still in need of doing-up.


• Relubbus, Penzance - 4 bedrooms detached house, 4 acres - OIRO £475,000
  


• Nance, Trink, St. Ives - 3 bedroom detached dormer bungalow - 0.5 acre garden plus 2.5 acre meadow - £425,000
  
  The meadow, barn, stables and "secondary garden area" are over the lane from the house. The house itself is "in need of some upgrading and would appeal to those seeking privacy without being isolated".

Update on St. Mawes

mar0176 by Keith JM G

I thought I'd see how the houses I'd listed from St. Mawes three weeks ago are doing. I clicked all the links and they are all still there, nothing seems to have sold and only one price drop from £1.5 to £1.25 million - still not in my price bracket!

Using rightmove's "added in the last fortnight" feature it appears this one is probably new:

• Newton Road, St. Mawes, TR2 Guide Price £495,000 4 bedroom cottage plus 1 bed annexe

These are also not on my previous list:

• Chapel Terrace, St. Mawes, TR2 Offers in Excess of £395,000 3 bedroom cottage
• Trelawney Road, St. Mawes, TR2 £420,000 2 bedroom bungalow
  
• Upper Castle Road, St. Mawes, TR2 5BZ £925,000 4 bedroom house
  

So putting all of this together here is the new master list of property in St. Mawes:

1. FF Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - £235,000, £230,000
2. Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - OIRO £300,000
   
3. Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - OIEO £305,000
4. Detached Bungalow - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £319,950
5. New conversion Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £325,000 (Down to £275,000 - Dec 15 2007)
   
6. Mid Terrace? - 3 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £330,000
7. Detached Bungalow - 3 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £395,000
8. Semi-detached Cottage - 3 bedrooms OIEO £395,000
   
9. New Apartment - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathroom - Asking price of £395,000
10. Detached Barn - 1 bedroom, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £399,950
11. Bungalow - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £420,000
    
12. End of Terrace - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £425,000
    
13. Detached Cottage (+ 1 bed Annexe) - 4 bedrooms Guide Price £495,000
14. FF apartment - 4 bedrooms, 1 reception room, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £525,000
15. End of Terrace - 2 bedrooms, 1 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £550,000
    
16. GF Apartment - 3 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 1 bathroom - Asking price of £650,000
    
17. Detached House (+ Annexe) - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £659,000
18. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 4 bathrooms - Asking price of £745,000
19. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Asking price of £795,000
20. Detached House* - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £925,000 (b,c,d)
21. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 4 bathrooms - Asking price of £925,000
    
22. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £1,250,000
23. Detached House - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - Guide Price of £1,250,000 (Down from £1,500,000 in previous posting)
24. Detached Bungalow - 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms - Asking price of £1,450,000

St. Agnes

2006-10-29 Chapel Porth 41 by kernowseb

St. Agnes is described thus by one of the estate agents, Miller Countrywide:

St Agnes is a very popular vibrant coastal village situated on Cornwall’s scenic north coast with good local facilities including a range of interesting shops, cafes, restaurants, public houses and hotels open all year round. The village is an old fishing and mining community, a beautiful sandy beach at Chapel Porth and a second beach at Trevaunance Cove, both of which are popular with surfers.

I'd considered St. Agnes before but I'm distinctly worried by the degree of old mine workings there - I don't want a house that collapses into an old tunnel. However in looking for possible eco-houses I've found this one which is a new build in St. Agnes:

West Polberro, 3 bedroom detached, Guide Price £475,000 (on primelocation its given as OIEO)

This house does pretty well on the eco front:

• Use of local construction materials - e.g. stone recovered from the site
• Solar panels pre-heat the thermal store for hot water and underfloor heating
• Rainwater is used to flush the loos and for the washing machine
• Heat recovery stops loss of heat from ventilation fans

Less impressive:

• Space for an American style fridge-freezer - I've never soon one of these that is efficient!
  
• The third bedroom is tiny. And the second isn't large.
  
• Only double, not triple glazing (assumption based on not being mentioned as triple and all new windows must be double these days)
• No garage and no mention of off-road parking.
• Small gardens with little growing space and no mention of rainwater collection for watering of garden plants.
• No green house.
  
• No mention of systems to cool the house - it may be sufficiently well-insulated that it won't get too hot in the summer but without a rating being given that's hard to judge
  

There is nothing in the details to show how this building measures up on the new Energy Performance ratings which is a shame as I'd like to know just how much better it is than the average house. Especially as I regard this one as being expensive for a 2/3 bedroom house. It will need to save a great deal of money to make it worth the mark-up from a purely economic point of view. Though its location might make up for that - it seems to have lovely views.

However the biggest strike against it for us is that it seems to have rather small gardens - not consistent with the grow your own vegetables life style that I see as going with an eco-house. I've not seen them but when I've asked the agent I just got yet another pdf of the brochure and the developer has yet to reply.

Some of the other houses currently available in St. Agnes:

• Wheal Kitty, 5 bedroom detached, Two annexes Guide Price £795,000 This one seems to have gone now. 31 dec 07
• 4 bedroom house OIRO £725,000 - very close to a beach
• Wheal Friendly, 3 bedroom cottage, £600,000 - this one has its own engine house!
• 3 bedrooms detached bungalow with land (3 acres) Guide Price of £450,000
• Middlegates, 3 bed detached bungalow Asking price of £310,000 This one seems to have gone now. 31 dec 07
  

Build your own Ecohouse?

Newquay_Z11908 by Ennor

A few links about sustainable house building / eco-homes in Cornwall:

• A group of people in Cornwall are learning how to build their own houses for £75,0000 a piece - the only problem is they'll need some land to put them on... oh and not all of them can afford £75,000 in the first place...
• Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust
• Mount Pleasant Eco Park
• The Sustainable Trust

Acres

storm brewing by tricky

Encouraged by a friend one of the things I've been wondering about is building an earthship or other type of eco-house. Maybe a whole earthship village. Of course it might be rather hard to get planning permission in any of the places I've selected below but at least they all have land:

1. Roseland Peninsula, Close to Caerhays, 6 acres (+ 6 bed house) - OIEO £800,000
2. Callestick, Truro 5.75 acres (+ 7 bed house) - OIEO £795,000
3. Fox Park, Bodmin, 12 acres (+ house + 2 holiday houses)
   
reviewed already - £795,000
4. St Ive, Nr Liskeard, 20 acres (+ 4 bed house and guest cottage in need of refurbishment) - £775,000
5. Old Mill, St.Wenn, 7 acres (+ 5 bed house and l bed lodge) - £760,000 - mentioned earlier today
6. St Keverne, Helston, 25 acres (+ agricultural buildings with planning consent for redevelopment) - OIEO £750,000
7. Bush, Bude, 4.5 acres (+ 5/6 bed house and stables) - £699,950
8. St Martin-by-Looe, 4.75 acres (+ 6 bed house) - £695,000
9. Sancreed, 11 acres (+ 3 bed house) - OIEO £695,000

Houses which break the chain

the weakest link by Darwin Bell

With the housing market currently having the jitters houses which say things like "No forward chain" are more attractive since that means what chain there is will be less likely to disintegrate.

Most of the ones I'm going to list will come from primelocation as it allows one to do key

Here are some that make this promise:

1. Old Mill, St.Wenn - £760,000
   
   Set in 7 acres this is a house with 5 bedrooms, 3 receptions and a long kitchen/breakfast room too.
   
   It has a small lake and beside a 1 bed lodge. The image that has most appeal is of the lake with a small boat on a jetty - how romantic!
   
   But what worries me most is the claim that:
   

   Great attention has been paid to retaining "olde worlde" effects wherever possible

   
   Maybe that just means beams but could be a way of excusing all sorts of things - although there are 10 photos only two are of the house's interior which doesn't bode well.
   
   Maybe I can live in the wooden lodge.
   


2. Detached Grade II Listed Farmhouse with Holiday Cottage, Sticker - £595,000 (Link not working - 13/12/07) 5 bedrooms, 1 reception, kitchen/breakfast room.
   

   Two further traditional stone barns, one with outline planning to convert into a second holiday let and the other with potential.

   Does that mean potentially another holiday cottage or just that you could do something with it?
   


3. Jacobstow, Bude, Cornwall - 5 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms - £475,000
   Its odd that this is described as being 5 beds etc. as it really is two separate properties (with separate council tax bands) side by side. One with 3 bedrooms and the other with two.
   The one that has been used as a holiday cottage looks lovely the other seems dark and maybe rather low ceilinged - though I've not seen it so don't know.
   

Houses being sold differently

"House of Cards" by Caro's Lines

Broadening my search beyond rightmove, primelocation and The Cornishman.

Here are some houses in Cornwall on HouseWeb

• Grade II listed 4 bed house + 2 bed annexe, St. Ewe, St. Austell - asking price of £750,000
  
  House: 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 acres
  Annexe: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
  
  I like the fact that this is less than 6 miles from the Eden project.


• Troutfarm, near St Ives - asking price of £750,000
  4 Bed house, 3 bathrooms
  big outbuildings, 9.5 acres
  and lots of ponds for the fish (it says "previously used commercially" so no need to be a fish farmer to buy this place)


• 17th Century Village House with Barn Conversion Annexe, Venterdon, Callington - asking price of £725,000
  4 Bed House, 3.5 Baths
  3 Bed Annexe, 2 baths
  Garaging for 4 cars /workshop
  Parking


• Bungalow with loft rooms, Bude - asking price of £349,950
  
  5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, views
  
  What drew my eye specifically was this:
  

  THE PROPERTY HAS BEEN LET IN THE PAST VIA FARM & COTTAGE HOLIDAYS (www.farmcott.co.uk). IT IS A PARTICULARLY LUCRATIVE INVESTMENT WITH BOOKINGS HISTORICALLY IN EXCESS OF 40 WEEKS PER YEAR.

  So rather a useful second house?