Despite everything, top properties are still hitting the market. One such example is historic Grade I-listed Ratling Court, near Canterbury in Kent, at a guide price of £2.2 million.
On the market with Strutt and Parker, the five-bedroom property has 4.7 acres and lashings of history.
It was built for the de Ratling family in 1320, as well as being the former home of Sir William Cowper, whose son, also William, became the first Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain in the 18th century.
It’s a home full of lovely character touches, with the highlights being the large dining-kitchen (complete with an Aga set in its own niche), a gorgeous sitting whose charms are complemented by a beautiful dark blue-and-white paint scheme, and a study with heaving bookshelves which would make an ideal background should you find yourself being interviewed by the BBC via Zoom.
Outside, there are large gardens with several outbuildings, including a stables and an old donkey wheel house, now used as a shady outdoor seating area that must be one of the largest and most unusual gazebos you'll ever see.
The house is available for virtual viewings, which have, naturally, become more popular in recent times. ‘Thankfully, technology allows much of what we do to carry on,’ says James Mackenzie, head of Strutt and Parker’s country department.
‘3D tours have made a big difference to both buyers and sellers during these weeks,’ James continues, adding that the technology allows buyers to focus on properties that they genuinely want to view in person, as well as allowing vendors to filter out non-serious offers.
‘We’ve been embracing this technology for over a year and a half now and it’s a worthwhile tool. Time will tell how it continues to be embraced by both buyers and sellers and how it will evolve.’
Credit: Strutt & Parker
A beautiful country house in Devon which you can virtually walk round from the comfort of your home
Many of the big estate agents have long been setting up 'virtual viewings' of some of the finest houses on
Credit: Savills
A stupendous 18th-century home with gardens that look like they've been borrowed from Versailles, designed by an architect credited as the 'father of wrestling'
Built in the 1700s, this eye-catchingly restored historic house is now available to view in the most modern sense —
In focus: How galleries and art dealers have shifted to showing and selling online
Galleries and dealers are using the difficulty of the lockdown to showcase their wares in virtual forms, from wartime oils
A tour around the Houses of Parliament without leaving your home
-
The greatest flowers make the greatest artA search for still-life subjects led Kate Friend to some of the greatest gardens and gardeners in the country
-
The Castle Howard Mausoleum, a building so beautiful 'you'd almost want to be alive when buried in it', is facing its own demiseThe celebrated Castle Howard Mausoleum is a dynastic monument to the Howard family, but it needs further restoration if it is to survive. Christopher Ridgway tells its story; photography by Paul Higham.
-
Can you buy happiness? The latest list of Britain's happiest places, and what you could end up with if you moved thereCan you buy happiness? Of course not, but you can buy a nicer house in a better town... and, well, that's probably going to help quite a bit.
-
The wave of downsizing about to hit the property market in the UKThe Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget — and specifically the 'Mansion Tax' — has fired a starting pistol for downsizers, and the waves will wash across the entire property market. Annabel Dixon spoke to property experts across the country to gauge how it will play out.
-
A Georgian farmhouse that's an 'absolute gem' in an ancient village on Salisbury PlainJulie Harding takes a look at the beautiful West Farm in a gorgeous Wiltshire village.
-
It'd be crazy to buy this 500-year-old farmhouse just because of its utterly gorgeous Aga — so thank goodness that the rest of this place is also really nicePerry Mill Farm is an immaculate yet characterful four-bedroom dream home in the country at a price that will make city dwellers immediately start Googling 'working from Worcestershire'.
-
'A masterpiece of timeless elegance' for sale on the charmed Surrey estate once owned by Henry VIII and the Guinness familyThe Manor House in Burwood Park is a grand, enormous and undeniably impressive. Annabel Dixon takes a look.
-
A grand hall in Yorkshire with 400 years of historyCarlton Hall is a wonderful family home amid glorious gardens in a quaint village location. Penny Churchill looks inside.
-
Why don't more of us live in brightly coloured homes?It's not often that you see a home sporting the colour palette that you'd get if you hired a four-year old as your interior designer. But why not? The Blue House in Bethnal Green asks this and many more questions.
-
Five magnificent mansions, from a former monastery to an Art Deco wonder in the South Downs, as seen in Country LifeWonderful homes, including a superb beach home in Cornwall, all fresh on the market via Country Life.
