Latest news with #BurnhamMarket
Times
7 days ago
- General
- Times
Which home would you buy for £625,000? Vote for your favourite
In the pretty village of Burnham Market is this Victorian period cottage. The ground floor, which was once the village bike shop, is now a 22ft x 14ft family room complete with a fireplace and links to a study. Across from the family room is the kitchen and WC. There are three bedrooms on the first floor, one of which has two toilets, and a separate bathroom. There is also one outbuilding, which is presently used as a workshop. Burnham Market has art galleries, boutiques, delis and a farm shop. EPC E (potential B) — on a scale of A (best) to G (worst)Upside Surrounded by activities and entertainment. Downside Terraced houses can be £625,000Contact Walking distance from the centre of Stroud, this handsome four-storey semi offers 2,329 sq ft of living space and is full of period charm: think thick oak floorboards and an original stone fireplace. The ground floor comprises two reception rooms and a kitchen/dining room that flows into an oak-framed conservatory. There's a 279 sq ft cellar plus six bedrooms arranged over the first and second floors. There's no garage but there is space to park at the front of the property as well as a low-maintenance lawned garden, which backs on to playing fields. It's on the market chain-free. EPC D (potential C)Upside In the catchment for two Parent Power ranked It's on an £625,000Contact Oakholme is a grade II listed semi-detached cottage described in its Historic England entry as having a 'timber-frame exposed on north gable and front … where projecting wall suggests former jetty'. The three-bedroom house is in North Warnborough, a small village on the northern fringes of Hampshire's chalk downs, about eight miles east of Basingstoke (from where trains to London Waterloo take about 40 minutes). The hallway leads to a living room with built-in storage, a kitchen/diner with French doors opening on to the garden and a shower room. Upstairs are three bedrooms, one of which has an en suite bathroom complete with a roll-top bath. EPC N/AUpside There's a separate garage to the The upstairs bathroom situation is not ideal. Price £625,000Contact Tucked away on a back lane in the tiny city of St Davids, this five-bedroom home looks out over the cathedral and miles of greenery. Through the wooden front doors is a corridor with beamed ceilings and the lounge and reception area on either side. The kitchen has an archway leading to a dining room, plus useful storage areas and a utility room. French doors open on to a rear garden set over two levels with panoramic views of the city. One of the bedrooms has an en suite bathroom and there is a separate shower room. EPC D (potential B)Upside A stunning location. Downside Interiors could do with some £625,000Contact The Highland town of Strathpeffer exploded into life in the Victorian era, when sulphurous springs made it a popular spa resort, and a new railway station connected it to the national network. Eaglestone, a B listed five-bedroom house, built in the mid-1800s, was one of the results. With its symmetrical three-bay frontage and continuous open-fronted veranda, supported by cast-iron columns, it has a striking design. The symmetrical reception rooms on the ground floor, and two large bedrooms above them, all have one elegantly curving wall with original cornicing. Inverness is about 40 minutes away by car. EPC E (potential C)Upside Former coach house has conversion Local railway station long since out of Offers over £625,000Contact An example of Scottish Arts and Crafts architecture at its finest, this six-bedroom villa is tucked away in a quiet leafy corner of the Craigie residential area of Dundee. Built in 1911 its three-storey design, rising to a sharply pitched roof, is one of a kind. A cleverly configured porch and bay-windowed living room gaze down the long south-facing lawn. The house retains much of its original painted decorative woodwork — a key feature of many Arts and Crafts homes. The one-acre plot is shrouded from view from the street and neighbouring properties by tall mature trees and has a large timber garage. EPC E (potential C)Upside Dundee and Broughty Ferry are less than a ten-minute drive The neighbourhood is not the Offers over £619,000Contact Here are 36 glorious acres of potential — minus the house, fences, neighbours and, conveniently, that pesky mortgage. This mixed mature woodland between Handcross and Lower Beeding, near Horsham, offers sweeping skies, an array of trees ranging from oaks, beech, larch, pine and horse chestnut, and is flooded with bluebells in the spring. One notable feature is a Second World War bunker on its northern border. EPC N/AUpside Great view of the Roof a little leakyPrice £625,000Contact
Telegraph
20-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
The charming corner of Norfolk rejecting the second homes tax
Norfolk is known for its quaint villages, beautiful beaches – and for being an epicentre of the backlash against second home owners. Much of this ire is focused in a quiet corner of North Norfolk, in the village of Burnham Market, in an area widely known as Chelsea-on-Sea. Here, almost 10pc of properties are second homes. In 2023, villagers voted to stop properties from being turned into holiday homes through the planning system, and then the council hit owners with a 100pc tax surcharge. Almost all of Norfolk penalises second home owners with higher council tax – except for one area which, by contrast, greets them with open arms. Welcome to Wymondham, in the heart of South Norfolk. It is far less flashy than its northerly counterparts. Its medieval streets are littered with thatched cottages, timber-framed properties and a historic abbey. The high street is packed with independent shops, and the cobbled market cross hosts a farmer's market every Friday. There is the annual Wymondham duck race, when hundreds of rubber ducks are launched down the river on May Day. Wymondham in Bloom transforms the high street during the summer months. It is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone – the locals can point out the Airbnb and second home hotspots. Yet they are welcoming of these visitors, as the high street cries out for more business. 'We need second home owners,' says Nicky O'Grady, a Wymondham local and owner of the Enchanted Willow flower shop. 'We need the footfall, and want the town to become more discovered. Second home owners can often afford to spend money and buy local produce. You can't just rely on locals for business.' 'Taxation for taxation's sake' While its neighbours have doubled tax on second homes, South Norfolk Council chose not to, deciding that it would have been 'taxation for taxation's sake'. The 100pc council tax premium on second homes was introduced by 230 councils across the country on April 1. It means a second home owner in Wymondham will pay £2,258 for a Band D property in council tax. Across the border in Great Yarmouth or North Norfolk, the same second home would attract a bill of more than £4,000. There are 667 second homes in the district, which is dwarfed in comparison to the 5,973 in North Norfolk. Yet local authorities with as few as six second homes – including Sandwell Borough Council in the West Midlands – have introduced the levy. The town hall resisted this attack on second home owners, saying it didn't believe in 'taxation for taxation's sake'. So the area remains an attractive second home destination, with the Norfolk Broads National Park nearby. Kyrena O'Brien, of local estate agency, TW Gaze, said the market in Wymondham is 'really active at the moment', with lots of interest from buyers. 'Wymondham is the most sought-after area in South Norfolk, it's getting more and more popular. The town is very welcoming of Airbnbs and short-term lets. It's getting busier, and that's a good thing.' She adds: 'This is the perfect place if you can't afford to be right on the sea, but you can get there quickly. It's also really easy to get to London via the A11 and has good train lines from Norwich, so it's a good place for a second home.' It's still an affordable place to buy, with median house prices just above the national average, at £300,000. 'We need the footfall' As is the case in so many small towns, its high street has struggled. Wymondham residents, Karen and Michael Graham, both 64, have seen an increasing number of businesses shut up shop over the years. 'The high street used to have wonderful butchers and fishmongers, etc,' says Karen. 'Second homes mean tourists are coming in, which helps the economy. We need the footfall.' Michael says that instead of buying in Chelsea-on-Sea, second home owners should set their sights further south. 'There are lots of places here that are extremely nice.' Their sentiment is echoed by local businesses. O'Grady, who runs the flower shop, says the town is 'lovely, but undiscovered', and adds that she can't 'just rely on locals for business'. 'We love tourism here. We need the second home owners. We want the town to become more discovered. I worry about the high street,' she added. Her shop, which is one of its oldest buildings, recently received royal approval when Princess Ann took a bunch of the Enchanted Willow's flowers on a visit to the local hospital. A change is coming The South Norfolk council area stretches from Diss in the south to the outskirts of Norwich, and creeps east towards the coast, bordering Great Yarmouth. As local government funding wanes, this second home tax haven may cease to exist next year. Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Budget hiked employer National Insurance contributions, indirectly costing councils an extra £1.13bn this year. And the spending review fell 'well short of filling the projected £2.2bn funding gap faced by county and unitary councils next year', the County Councils Network said. South Norfolk District Council has suggested that it may have to bring in the levy because of a lack of government support. Daniel Elmer, the council leader, said: 'South Norfolk Council took the decision not to increase council tax on second homes this year as we do not believe in taxation simply for taxation's sake. 'Unfortunately, due to the reduced support from central government and the current financial situation, we have had to agree to introduce the increase from next year so that we can use the added revenue to help reduce the overall tax burden for our residents.' This move may not be wholly supported by Wymondham's locals, however. Buster Smith, South Norfolk born-and-bred, says: 'There is nothing in Wymondham now. It's just charity shops. We need people here!'
