From a Grade ll Listed Cottage to New Build Townhouse
Downsizers Swap Grade II Listed Cottage for a New Build Winchester Townhouse
When they moved into their quite large Grade II listed house in Longparish, Hampshire, in 2001, Sarah and George settled into the rural lifestyle straight away. But after 23 years of maintaining a period property and a steep increase in mortgage rates and privately educating six children, the semi-retired couple decided it was time for a change. Swapping their peaceful life surrounded by fields, riverside walks and wildlife, Sarah and George moved into a brand new four-storey townhouse at Berkeley’s Knights Quarter development earlier this year, just five minutes from Winchester’s bustling city centre.
After Sarah (57) and George (63) moved into their listed 19th century cottage, they spent 23 years upgrading it and bringing it into the modern day. The detached seven bedroom property dated back to 1840, and during the time they lived there the couple created a garden party room and a two-bedroom Air BnB annexe in their acre of land in the garden. Sarah comments: “We loved our life in the village, but the maintenance of home of that scale really did take up a lot of our time. Our garden was like fighting a jungle at times, and we would spend hours just mowing the grass. I think we naturally came to a point in our lives where we were ready to downsize; five of our six children had fled the nest and moved to London, the increase in interest rates bumped our monthly mortgage payments up by fivefold and with just the two of us at home most of the time, we decided a smaller property would suit us much better.”
After selling their cottage well, Sarah and George purchased a five bedroom townhouse at Knights Quarter.
Why Knights Quarter?
George continues: “By purchasing the townhouse at Knights Quarter, we released a sizable amount of equity. This bought our new mortgage down to a much more manageable number compared to our previous mortgage, cutting it by a third. We’re hoping mortgage rates decline at some point in the near future, which will then reduce our mortgage payments even further.”
Discussing why they chose to move to a new build in Winchester, Sarah comments: “We’d been considering a new build for a while due to the little maintenance they require, and we heard about Knights Quarter through an article about a couple that had moved there, in a national paper. We booked a visit to see the show home and fell in love straight away. We reserved as soon as we could, and didn’t look back!”
Why Winchester?
George adds: “We thought we’d miss a little bit about where we used to live, but the truth is, there’s nothing we don’t love about our new life. Everything is now in walking distance for us, and we regularly walk into the city centre for a coffee. We have two dogs and you’d think they would hate not going on a five mile walk through the fields every day, but I think they’re enjoying exploring our new surroundings. There are lots of amazing walks down by the Water Meadows and St Catherine’s Hill, and there is a lovely park - Oram’s Arbour - just a two minute walk away, so we walk the dogs there most days.”
Speaking on their favourite part of their new home, George comments: “This property really has the wow factor as soon as you enter, and we love that. As it’s a townhouse, you enter the home at ground level and then we go down to a lower ground, which is where we spend most of our time. It’s a huge open-plan space with a dining and living space, an enormous kitchen with a utility room, an office area and bifold doors which let the sun in for most of the day. The only time we really leave this area is to go to bed!”
Sarah adds: “For me, I love having so many floors. If you go up to the first floor, we have two incredible bedrooms which both have vast dressing rooms and en suites. They are our deluxe suites as we call them – when we have people to stay, they say it’s like being at a five-star hotel! I love the amount of space we have too. We downsized from 5,000sqft to 3,000sqft but it doesn’t feel like we’ve lost that much space at all.”
Why Berkeley?
New build homes are proven to be more energy efficient than older period properties, with the average new build energy bill 57% cheaper than older homes . George comments: “We haven’t been here in the winter yet, but we’re hoping our energy bills will be a lot less here. In our previous home with dated insulation, we had electricity and an oil tank so our energy bills were extortionate at around £1,000 a month. Here, we’ve got great insulation and underfloor heating on the two lower floors, and water radiators, so we’re hopeful we will notice a very positive difference.”
Speaking of buying with Berkeley, Sarah comments: “It’s been a really pleasant experience buying with Berkeley. From reservation to completion it was about 10 weeks in total which we were really pleased with. The ladies in the sales office have been amazing and have helped us when we’ve had any queries. We would recommend buying here to any of our friends or family and in fact, we have already suggested to George’s stepmother that she moves to Knights Quarter from Romsey.”
Find out more information about Knights Quarter today.
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