January 2024 - Fleet, Hartley Wintney, Odiham McCarthy Holden Estate Agents

Top End Market Uptick In January

January 30, 2024 by John Holden

Residential property sales saw a notable uptick in January at McCarthy Holden, with contracts being exchanged and new sales being agreed.

Luke Parkes runs the country house department from our Hartley Wintney branch and in the last week some examples of the top end market activity included another property sale exchange on The Ridges, Finchampstead at circa £1.9m., and a new sale agreed on a £5.250m. property in Finchampstead on the Berkshire / Hampshire borders. The video below shows these specific properties.

In addition, yet another insight into market activity in the higher end sector was witnessed when he put the property below live to the open market on Friday last week, only to receive and offer on the every first viewing.

Right now Luke Parkes is encouraging anyone thinking of selling in the £1.5m. to £5.0m. sector to contact him and discuss the possibility of coming to the market early this year to take advantage of the buyer interest currently in place. For further information telephone 01252 842100 or email [email protected]

Experienced Consultant Joins McCarthy Holden

January 30, 2024 by John Holden

Having previously set up and run many successful property companies in the past, Nigel Allen joins McCarthy Holden in Hartley Wintney as a very experienced consultant in the property industry.

Coincidently Nigel started his career as an estate agent just over 40 years ago at the tender age of 16 and actually worked with McCarthy Holden Chairman John Holden for 7 years with Carson & Company. He left in 1990 with one of the Directors to start Vickery and company, before starting his own company called Orchard Sales & Lettings based in Camberley in 2006, a business he sold 10 years later.

Nigel subsequently opened a land and new homes business and a property related recruitment company which he sold in 2022.

There is clearly no question that Nigel will bring a vast amount of experience and ability and a skill set that will be of benefit to McCarthy Holden clients.

Having previously worked in Hartley Wintney and living in the village, Nigel is looking forward to sharing his vast experience helping local sellers and buyers alike.

In his spare time Nigel can be found either entertaining his twin grandsons or, together with his wife, walking their dog on one of the commons in the village.

You can contact Nigel by phone on 01252 842100 of by email [email protected]

Property Previews – Due To Open Market Soon

January 6, 2024January 6, 2024 by John Holden

We are delighted to bring our newsletter readers a preview of some properties that are about to go to the open market any day soon, so enjoy this opportunity to get ahead.

House buyers and search agents alike love the opportunity to see a property that hasn’t yet been placed on the open market, so here are a few of the interesting and diverse properties to whet their property search appetite.

Fleet, Hampshire – Estimated Guide £1,200,000

This character home is in an excellent location and competitively priced, so take a look at the preview video above and telephone 01252 620640 or email [email protected] for further information or an appointment to view.

Hartley Wintney (Cricket Green Area) – Estimated Guide £635,000

Our Hartley Wintney branch will soon be placing this lovely 2 bedroom terraced cottage on the open market, situated by the cricket green so this is an opportunity not to be missed. The owners are just preparing the property for sale, but in the meantime we are showing some old photographs above will give you some insight. Telephone 01252 842100 ro email [email protected] for further information or an appointment to view.

Finchampstead, Berkshire – Estimated Guide £2,250,000

Our country house department will be showcasing this unique property in about ten days from now, so this is a rare opportunity to get in early. We sold this property to the current owners many years ago, but due to a long term overseas job move they have reluctantly decided to sell. The property features a high specification interior, extensive garaging (6 cars) and a superb detached home office building.

The property is situated in a wonderful rural location in Finchampstead, about 5 miles from Wokingham and about 3 miles from renowned Wellington College. Telephone 01252 842100 or email [email protected] for further information or an appointment to view..

Eversley, Hampshire – Anticipated Guide Offers In Excess of £1,100,000

This is a truly unique four bedroom detached character property, situated in the heart of Eversley Village. Built in 1812 and extended and modernised throughout, the property offers modern living, stunning interior design and character charm.

Due to the market in about two weeks, so early viewing is recommended. Telephone 01252 842100 or email [email protected] for further information or an appointment to view..

2024 – Will A Labour Government Be Good for The House Market?

January 6, 2024January 5, 2024 by John Holden

There are two events that are likely to happen by the end of 2024 and both could have a profound impact on the house market.

The first is the likelihood of interest rates starting to tumble during the second half of 2024, which in itself will have a positive impact on stability in the UK residential house market, perhaps even resulting in some recovery in house prices.

The second is the likelihood of a Labour party being in Government and the impact on the house market is not as obvious, unless you have prior experience or the ability to navigate some research.

So, to help our readers, here are some thoughts.

Our most experienced senior director has personal experience of around 50 years in estate agency, and believes that in the short to medium term a Labour Government is likely to give a boost to the UK residential property market as it has done in years past. This may come as a surprise to market watchers as the Conservative party has traditionally styled itself as the “party of homeownership”

But you don’t need to take our opinion, because real house price growth in the last five decades has risen the most under Labour governments, while four out of the five governments that presided over falling house prices were Conservative, according to a recent report by the buying agency Middleton Advisors’

Analysis also shows that the Labour prime minister Tony Blair oversaw the period of greatest growth in the housing market, with prices increasing by 9 per cent per year on average during his Leadership. Between June 2001 and May 2005, when Blair was prime minister, house prices increased by almost £48 a day. Under John Major’s Conservative government, which started during a global recession in 1990, house prices increased by just £3 a day.

Let’s be clear, in the past Labour was lucky enough to preside over more periods of economic prosperity than the Conservatives and it was not their policies that was impacting the strength in the house market. Indeed it wasn’t that long ago that there was panic in some quarters about Labour housing policies and especially the prospect of a Jeremy Corbyn led Government, with his hard left interference with the property / land market (Land For The Many Paper) which no doubt cost Labour the last General Election.

The Labour party has recently released date showing that two thirds of children born in 2023 won’t own a home before their fifties – and has said that it’s aiming for 70% home ownership. To reach this target, it proposes introducing a mortgage guarantee scheme and increasing the stamp duty surcharge for foreign investors. We’ll see.

But moving away from policies, the reality is that the main influence of a healthy property market is a stable and sound economy and, with the likelihood of Labour being in power some time next year, combined with the historic antidotes of inheriting a good economy, then on balance a Labour Government will be good for improving the house market.

So what should a house buyer do with this potential scenario? The answer is simple, try to make your house buying decision in the first half of 2024, whether you are a first time buyer or seasoned house mover. Start your 2024 house search.

One Life starring Sir Anthony Hopkins: An extraordinary story of ‘heroism and sacrifice’

January 4, 2024 by John Holden

ANTHIONY-HOPKINS-ONE-LIFE-MCCARTHY-HOLDEN

There is an old Hebrew proverb which says that if you save one life, you save the world. But stockbroker-turned-humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton saved more than just one life on the eve of the Second World War: he saved 669, in fact – thus saving the lives of generations to come.

Sir Nicholas, known as Nicky to his friends and family, did his benevolent work in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s, but his actions only really became widely known in 1988, when he was celebrated live on the BBC during the TV programme That’s Life.

It was revealed on the popular current affairs programme that Nicky – the unassuming elderly man in the front row of the studio audience, who had barely breathed a word of what he had done in the intervening years – had rescued hundreds of children, most of them Jewish, helping them flee the Nazis by providing rail transport, visas and accommodation in Britain.

Now his story is being told on the big screen in One Life, with Sir Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn as Nicky during two significant stages of his life: Flynn as the younger man in Prague, and Sir Anthony as the elder 50 years later, still carrying guilt for the children he was not able to bring to safety.

Editorial by Rachael Davis, PA Entertainment Features Writer

In December 1938, Nicky visited Prague, where there operated a small NGO – the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia – which tried to help those fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany and Austria.

He found families living with little to no shelter or food, while the threat of Nazi invasion loomed. He realised these people, these children, needed to be taken to safety – and fast. It was a race against time before the borders closed, and before the vulnerable youngsters succumbed to the squalid conditions in which they lived.

“Nicky says (in the screenplay): ‘I’m a European, I’m a socialist, I’m an agnostic’ – his belief, his faith, was in humanity,” says Operation Mincemeat and Emma star Flynn, 40.

“He considered everybody to be the same and all lives worth saving.”

While One Life follows Nicky, he formed part of a larger team operating out of Prague. As Sir Anthony, 85, says: “It’s about several people – not just one man – saving the lives of children who are about to be consumed into the gas chambers and furnaces of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Belsen.”

A key member of this Prague team was Doreen Warriner, played by Atonement and Becoming Elizabeth’s Romola Garai.

“I knew nothing about her at all,” says Garai, 41, of Doreen.

“She never saw any kind of recognition for her contribution in World War Two, or any of the other many, many amazing things she achieved in her life. She’s a real (example) of the kind of incredible life that a woman will lead, and then never tell anybody about it.”

Nicky’s German mother Babi, played by Helena Bonham Carter, greatly assists the operation from London, but faced emotional conflict when her son presented her with his plan to try to get the children to Britain.

“She’s reluctant because it’s a highly dangerous situation,” says Bonham Carter, 57, known for roles in Harry Potter and Les Miserables.

“He’s walking into the mouth of a tiger, and it’s not made explicit, but Nicky is of Jewish extraction.

“They were called Wertheim until 1937, so the Winton renaming is very recent in the timeline… whilst Babi had Nicholas christened, she and her husband were German Jewish, both from Nuremberg.

“She’s also survived the First World War, she knows what it’s like to survive prejudice, as well as what’s happening with the Jews in Prague.

“She’s scared, of course, but when he comes back with this idea, I think she’s very proud.”

In recreating this extraordinary story, director James Hawes – for whom this film marks his feature directorial debut – thought it important to use real locations wherever possible. One such location was Prague station, indeed the very platform where Nicky’s evacuation trains departed from.

“In the palette of the film, I have almost no red: We took it out of costume, we’d taken it out of almost everything, and then when it comes, it comes largely because of the Nazi flag – so it punches through,” explains Hawes of achieving the emotional impact of the Nazi presence.

Filming in Prague station, he adds, was “incredibly evocative” – particularly later scenes where Nazi flags adorn the platforms.

“On the night before the filming (of the scene) with the Nazis being there, the art department were prepping the flags and putting them up. And people didn’t know this was for a film,” Hawes says.

“So powerful is that image, as you can imagine, in Prague, that there were complaints… armed police responded in a hurry, because they thought it was some sort of far-right demo going on. So we had to calm things down a bit and explain what was happening.”

“I think there are moments in your life as an actor where you feel the tremendous weight of responsibility to tell a story well, to tell it accurately,” adds Garai.

“When you’re standing, dressed as somebody, standing on the actual platform of the actual station where they gathered up hundreds and hundreds of children, put them on these trains, having spent months trying to get them visas and campaigned for money to support their travel, find host families for them, to save their lives… It was deeply emotional filming those scenes.”

While One Life tells a historic story, it is pertinent now, too.

“It’s not a war film; it’s a human story, about real people,” says Flynn.

“It’s not about soldiers, but about people being compromised by conflict and how they deal with it; small and large acts of heroism and sacrifice. It is how people help each other in the cracks in between those conflicts.”

“The film depicts a time in the 1930s where unemployment was very high in Britain at the time, there was a lot of fear about immigration, and that fear is here with us now,” adds Garai.

“The title of this film, One Life: any human being can change the world so much for the better. And if you’re open to people and open to what they can contribute, then it can be such a powerful force for good, for you as an individual, for your family, for your culture and your country.

“That isn’t an argument I think people can afford to ever stop making.”

That is a sentiment shared by Sir Anthony, too.

“I only hope this will send a message lest we forget,” he says.

“Because we forget so quickly.”

One Life arrived in UK cinemas on Monday, January 1.

How climate change is shifting Monty Don’s outlook on gardening

January 4, 2024 by John Holden

MCCARTHY HOLDEN MONTY DON GARDENING FEATURE

As gardeners face continuing extreme conditions with climate change, TV plantsman Monty Don says he is considering cutting back on plants which need more mollycoddling to survive.

“Things that all my life I’ve grown with ease are now problematic, and other things which I’ve struggled with seem to be fine. So it’s swings and roundabouts,” says Don, speaking to promote his new book, The Gardening Book.

He’s recently removed the last of the box hedging from Longmeadow, his garden in Herefordshire, where the popular gardening series is filmed.

“Box hedging, which has been such a feature of European gardens for the last 400 years, I now regard as almost impossible to grow if it’s clipped, because the combination of box blight and box moth means it’s almost inevitable it’s going to get one of those two unless you spray it endlessly with fungicides, which is certainly not something I’m prepared to do.”

He continues: “It’s become a culture where the more plants you grow, the more variety, the more extreme, the fact that they come from the jungle, or the desert or the rainforest, is something we’re proud of. Actually, what we should be thinking is: no, this is not sustainable, it’s not viable, it’s not practical – and actually doesn’t always look good.”

Greenhouse protection

He’s rethinking what he stores in his greenhouses over winter. “In view of climate change, it just doesn’t make any kind of environmental sense to put carbon into the atmosphere, and then spend a lot of money heating plants in order that they might grow in an environment that they don’t naturally want to grow.”

While historically, we’ve grown plants marked by trophy – showing off plants which are difficult to grow or come from the other side of the world, but which needed a lot of mollycoddling to succeed.

“I’m challenging that,” says Don. “Maybe we just can’t afford to do that, in the same way that we can’t use peat, or water if there’s a drought, or pump carbon into the atmosphere by heating greenhouses on very high when there is a 10-degree frost outside. We just have to rethink that.”

He hasn’t given up on dahlias and cannas, he says.

“What I have learned is that increasingly, it doesn’t make sense to provide heated winter storage for plants I absolutely cannot overwinter outside. Dahlias are no problem at all, because we store the tubers on shelves and they take up very little space. I can store some cannas but I’m going to leave half in the ground, and I’m not going to store any more big bananas.”

Natural survivors

He is considering cutting back on plants which aren’t going to survive naturally. “For example, salvias, which I love, don’t really like us because our soil is very heavy and wet. I will this year will be overwintering only a third of what I would normally, but I’ve taken cuttings from the rest. So if they all die, which they will do if it’s as cold as last winter, I’ll store the cuttings in the greenhouse to free up space.”

Fewer species

Don believes the trend will be towards gardening with fewer, more sustainable species, which largely means hardy plants.

“When you say hardy, of course, that doesn’t just mean resistant to cold. It also means resistant to heat and drought. In our damp garden, there are plants like ligularia and rodgersias, which are very happy in the wet but really don’t like it when it’s extremely dry. So you need plants that are adaptable to what seems to be a pattern of erratic, extreme weather.”

He doesn’t claim to have all the answers, he says.

“I think anybody who tells you exactly what the implications of climate change are, doesn’t understand climate change. The one pattern is that there is no exact pattern, but it does involve extreme weather, extreme cold, extreme heat, extreme drought, extreme wet.

“We’re seeing it happening, but it’s erratic, there’s no way of saying – ok, we now know that the months of January and February are going to be wetter than normal. They might be, or they might not be. But what we do know is there is a trend in in that direction.”

In autumn, he was still enjoying rudbeckias, some rose blooms and dahlias, and earlier in 2023 filmed for two weeks in central Spain, which he points out can get down to minus-15 degrees in winter and up to 45 degrees in summer, where the soil is very poor.

“There are gardens that only have maybe a dozen different plants, which look fantastic,” says Don. “We just need to edit what we grow to be sustainable.”

The Gardening Book by Monty Don is published by BBC Books, priced £28. Available now.

Top End Market Uptick In January

Experienced Consultant Joins McCarthy Holden

Property Previews – Due To Open Market Soon

Fleet, Hampshire – Estimated Guide £1,200,000

Hartley Wintney (Cricket Green Area) – Estimated Guide £635,000

Finchampstead, Berkshire – Estimated Guide £2,250,000

Eversley, Hampshire – Anticipated Guide Offers In Excess of £1,100,000

2024 – Will A Labour Government Be Good for The House Market?

One Life starring Sir Anthony Hopkins: An extraordinary story of ‘heroism and sacrifice’

How climate change is shifting Monty Don’s outlook on gardening

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Fleet, Hampshire – Estimated Guide £1,200,000

Hartley Wintney (Cricket Green Area) – Estimated Guide £635,000

Finchampstead, Berkshire – Estimated Guide £2,250,000

Eversley, Hampshire – Anticipated Guide Offers In Excess of £1,100,000

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