If you spend a good proportion of your evenings idly browsing property websites looking for your favourite fantasy home, you’re not alone. Property site Rightmove says millions of us do just that, and our fantasy bank balances appear to be much larger than our actual purchasing power.
“From homes with years of history, to contemporary pads with every modern feature available, this year millions of people have been looking at the most amazing homes on the market,” said Rightmove’s Tim Bannister. “Many of us have thought about where we could live if money was no object, and this shows in the most viewed homes of the year which have captured the imagination of people across Great Britain during 2022.”
Here are the most viewed properties in 2022, according to Rightmove.
Chippenham, Wiltshire, £5m
At the top of the list is Luckington Court, a Grade II-listed eight-bedroom 11th-century mansion in Chippenham, Wiltshire, which was the setting for the Bennet family home in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
Despite attracting the most views, the house – which boasts more than 9,600 sq ft (892 sq metres) of living space, including six reception rooms, seven main bedrooms, six bathrooms, an integral flat and an annexe, surrounded by beautifully maintained gardens, paddocks, pasture and woodland with frontage to the River Avon – has failed to find a buyer and its asking price was reduced to £5m last month. The house was on the market for £9.5m just five years ago.
Highgate, London, £35m
The second-most popular house is a giant seven-bedroom glass and steel modernist house in Highgate that boasts a swimming pool that opens on to the garden. The £35m house, on Merton Lane near the bathing ponds on Hampstead Heath, also features a glass lift, private gym, spa and billiards room. In addition there is a 4,400 sq ft (409 sq metre) staff lodge, a tennis court and a garage big enough for four cars.
St Austell, Cornwall, £4m
Slightly more modest is a five-bedroom home perched on cliffs overlooking Carlyon Bay near St Austell in Cornwall. The house, which is on sale for £4m, is described by estate agents as “a breathtaking house of the utmost quality and craftsmanship, and of impeccable presentation”.
Altrincham, Greater Manchester, £4.25m
You could move to the “happiest place in the UK” if you bought this mansion in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. The five-bedroom, five-bath/shower-room house is described as “one of the finest houses currently available … [a] splendid mansion house residence occupying a superb, private position within a highly desirable location in Hale Barns”. The property also features a cinema room, a large gym and a play room.
Totteridge Green, north London, £19.995m
A vast estate in Totteridge Green, north London, has a house with eight bedrooms, as many bathrooms, a gym, a private cinema room, and a tenpin bowling lane – not to mention its own six-hole golf course within 4.6 hectares (about 11.5 acres) of grounds.
“Grovelands is a hidden gem for people who prefer a private life and is approached via its own private road over Totteridge Common with electronically operated security gates giving access to the impressive Gate House,” the agent says.
The gate house alone has a reception room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, and private garden: perfect, the agent says, “for live-in security, allowing for extensive scrutiny of any approaching vehicle to the grounds”.
