Once in a lifetime

NOTHING succeeds like success and, after a jittery start to the year, a handful of significant country-house sales was enough to turn the receding tide and tempt vendors and buyers alike back into the open market. In what turned out to be a surprisingly good year for ‘once-ina-lifetime’ houses, leading country-house agents were heartened by the level of demand at the top end of the market for well-restored historic houses in tranquil, private locations—many for sale for the first time in decades.

‘One interesting fact,’ notes Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank, ‘is that, of country houses on our books at £5 million