Demand rises for second homes with Covid-secure pools, spas and cinemas
Demand has surged for double plots of land to build second homes with room for Covid-secure swimming pools, spas and cinemas.
Companies offering self-contained holiday homes with space for their own leisure facilities for families to create Coronavirus-free “bubbles” have reported an eight-fold increase in demand following the national lockdown.
Many families are spurning foreign holidays to instead invest between £500,000 and £1.4 million in such second homes in anticipation that Coronavirus or other viruses with pandemic potential will remain a threat for the foreseeable future.
The trend is confirmed by estate agents Knight Frank which found nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of 450 householders surveyed said the lockdown had made them more likely to purchase a second home.
The top three most popular amenities for a new property were a large garden, outdoor space or access to land (56 per cent), a home office or study (53 per cent), and privacy (43 per cent).
Red Paxton, whose family business offers people the chance to build their own bespoke second homes in the countryside or seaside, said the proportion of enquiries seeking larger plots with private facilities had increased from five per cent to 40 per cent after lockdown.
Of the deals secured since the restrictions were lifted, six families are proceeding with a mix of private pools, mini spas and games rooms. These account for half of the sales since families have been able to visit his two estates in Dorset and the Cotswolds.
His company, Habitat First Group, founded by his father Jeremy, gives people the opportunity to buy a single or double plot, ranging from 400 square metres to up to 1,000 square metres where they can work with an architect to design a second home.
The larger double plots - which allow for eight by four metre swimming pools, spa, sauna, barbecue, cinema and games rooms - start at between £1.3 million and £1.4 million, either by wooded lakes in the Cotswolds or near the sea on Dorset’s Jurassic coast. A single plot starts at £535,000.
“There are no walls or gates but it means you can put a bit more space between the properties. That’s all people want as long as they have their private space. They can go out and come back to their own private bubble,” said Mr Paxton.
“Since lockdown, there has been a spike in interest for larger plots with their own facilities, which is like creating a double bubble within a bubble.”
Mr Paxton said people were anxious “to get back to it” after lockdown and get on with building their homes at pace. “People seem eager to get on with it. They want to make a change in their life that is going to be good for the future of their families and want to do it quite quickly,” he added.
Many were spurning holidays abroad with some remortgaging their family homes to pay for a second base that was sometimes bigger than their first house. They ranged from young families in their 30s to grandparents in their 80s investing in a holiday home that could be passed on.
The estates, which have an explicit rule that they must be holiday homes and cannot become the permanent address, are the only second home developments in the UK to be accredited with a Building with Nature award, which sets ecological standards.
The desire to escape from the virus to nature is confirmed by analytics firm, Mintel, which found the biggest growth in holiday demand was for breaks in the countryside with all other types of holiday registering negative interest. More than one in five (21 per cent) said they were more likely to seek a rural break post-lockdown.
