The 12 biggest country property sales of 2025, from 'one of the finest homes in the Cotswolds' to a £5 million cottage in Cornwall
Momentum came and went during 2025, but agents around the UK showed time and again that exceptional country houses continue to sell, proving that quality and sensible pricing still cut through uncertainty. Penny Churchill reports.
Like the proverbial curate’s egg, the market for country houses in 2025 was actually quite good in parts — to which anyone involved in buying or selling such properties will attest.
‘With stagnation in the market in the early part of the year and the leaks relating to the Budget putting a spanner in the works from August onwards, almost the only houses sold last year were either “best in class” or perceived to be very good value,’ says Edward Rook of Knight Frank, who kickstarted his year with the sale in March of The Old Rectory at Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, 3¾ miles from Ardingly and 6¾ miles from the commuter hub of Haywards Heath. It was bought by English entrepreneurs who had sold their business and were looking to upsize, Mr Rook reveals.
The Old Rectory at Horsted Keynes sold via Knight Frank.
Launched onto the market in late August last year with a guide price of £5.5 million, the grand, 10,000sq ft country house was built as a replacement for a former Georgian rectory that was demolished in about 1970. It stands in 27 acres of spectacular gardens and grounds on the edge of the Ashdown Forest, with glorious, sweeping views of the South Downs, and boasts six elegant reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, a luxurious principal bedroom suite, four further bedrooms and three further bathrooms. Amenities include indoor and outdoor pools, outbuildings, a three-hole golf course, two ponds and a lake.
Elsewhere in the South-East, Theo James-Wright of Blue Book hit the ground running with a number of high-profile sales in the problematic £2 million to £5 million price bracket, two of which were undoubtedly ‘best in class’. The first was handsome Grade II-listed Swiftsden House, set in almost 30 acres of glorious gardens and grounds within the High Weald National Landscape, 1½ miles from the hilltop village of Hurst Green and 3¼ miles from Etchingham on the Kent/East Sussex border.
Swiftsden House had been in the same family since 1977 — and the buyers went for it (at £3.5 million) despite not even being in the market for a property at the time.
Built in 1892 to the design of Sir Reginald Blomfield, Swiftsden House came to the market in early April, having been owned by the same family since 1977. It was sold by early September at a guide price of £3.5 million to London buyers who weren’t actively seeking to buy at the time, but, being familiar with the area, realised that they might never get a second chance and decided to seize the day.
Described by Pevsner as ‘a perfect example of a Queen Anne house’, Grade II*-listed Leacon Hall stands in 12 acres of hillside gardens and grounds on the edge of the ancient village of Warehorne, near Ashford, east Kent, close to the Cinque Ports of New Romney, Rye and Winchelsea. Launched by Blue Book in mid June with a guide price of £2.95 million, the exquisite, 8,363sq ft, red-brick house, with its lodge, oast house and outbuildings, was sold in late November to a London buyer.
Leacon Hall, described as the 'perfect Queen Anne House', had an asking price of £2.95 million. It sold in November.
Built in 1708 by gentleman farmer Thomas Kenneth Hodges, who reputedly supplemented his income and building funds by smuggling French brandy, Leacon Hall was sympathetically modernised and maintained by a succession of custodians, including Mary Millais, who bought the hall with her husband in the early 1900s, and remained there as a widow until 1942.
Unlike many south-coast houses that were requisitioned during the Second World War and stripped of historic panelling for use as firewood, the wonderful original panelling at Leacon Hall owes its survival to Lady Millais, who refused to allow the hall to be requisitioned, thereby preserving its many fine internal features.
November 2025 witnessed the sale of one of the finest privately-owned houses in the Cotswolds: the imposing Grade II*-listed Edgeworth Manor. Set in 56 acres of wonderful Victorian gardens, woodland and its own enchanting valley near Stroud, the deal was cause for celebration by joint agents Savills and Knight Frank, who finally sold the house at a guide price of £11 million after three years of hard graft. Edgeworth had originally launched onto the market in November 2022.
Edgeworth Manor sits in its own enchanting valley near Stroud. It took a while to sell — for around £11 million — but it all went through in 2025.
The present house dates from a rebuilding by Nathaniel Ridler of the two-storey east front, dated 1685. The most dramatic changes in the shape and scale of Edgeworth Manor came when, in 1879, Francis James, a London barrister, bought the manor and its surrounding farms. The 17th-century house was too small to accommodate the James family and their eight children and a Tudor-style wing was replaced by a north wing added in 1882. In 1899, James’s son, Arthur, engaged Sir Ernest George to alter the country-house style of the building to that of a baronial hall. The ground floor is still dominated by George’s great baronial hall and drawing room in the south wing.
According to Lindsay Cuthill, co-founder of Blue Book, the current wave of American buyers eyeing up the Cotswolds shows no sign of abating. On the contrary, he says, discerning US buyers are now looking beyond the trendy golden triangle of Daylesford, Estelle Manor and Soho Farmhouse to the south Cotswolds, where the pace of life is less frantic and house prices substantially lower. Having launched the unlisted Lampern House near the village of Uley, Gloucestershire, with a guide price of £4.85 million in the first week of February, Mr Cuthill managed to seal a deal with an American buyer by July 1.
Lampern House sold to an American buyer in July.
Tucked away in a tranquil rural setting on a quiet country lane to the west of Uley and a 10-minute drive from the royal market town of Tetbury, Lampern House sits on high ground in the middle of its 23 acres of gardens, grounds, paddocks and stabling.
Substantially upgraded by the vendors in 2006, it offers more than 6,300sq ft of accommodation on three floors, including five charming reception rooms, six bedrooms and five bathrooms. Benches placed strategically around the property provide captivating views of the surrounding woodland and nearby Owlpen Manor, a classic vista that represents for many the quintessential Cotswold landscape.
For the past two years, West Country buyers have been largely conspicuous by their absence, with canny prospective purchasers seeking serious discounts before eventually agreeing a sale. A recent example of this was the impeccably restored Grade II-listed Selwood Manor on the outskirts of Frome in Somerset, described by James Fisher in Country Life as ‘a 300-year-old Jacobean mansion that comes with woodland, orchard and its own mini-village’. Having failed to find a buyer through a rival agent at an asking price of £5 million, the pristine, 10-bedroom manor house, set in 11 acres of grounds overlooking the River Frome, was re-launched by Alistair Heather of Savills in Bath with a guide price of £3.25 million in June 2025 and it sold by October, reportedly for more than the guide.
Selwood Manor reportedly went for more than its £3.25 million asking price.
Despite rumours to the contrary, it was by no means all doom and gloom in the West Country. In Devon, Savills handled the sale, for the first time ever, of the wonderfully private Villa Crusoe, which stands in four acres of gardens and woodland on the banks of the River Avon, two miles from Bigbury-on-Sea.
The striking 1920s villa was built by the gregarious Wade family of Nailsea Court, Somerset, who entertained lavishly over the years. High-profile guests included Daniel Defoe and Alexander Selkirk, whose adventures inspired Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe. Villa Crusoe was launched onto the market in February with a guide price of £3.3 million and quickly sold by June.
The £3.3 million Villa Crusoe earned its name from some former guests: Daniel Defoe and Alexander Selkirk, whose adventures inspired Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe.
Across the Tamar in Cornwall, county specialist Ian Lillicrap looks back with pride on a busy year for the firm, Lillicrap Chilcott, that he founded with Andrew Chilcott more than 40 years ago. It saw sales in 2025 of some 230 houses, from cottages and coastal retreats to town and country houses. A highlight of the year was the sale of Constantine Bay Cottage, which stands on a wild Atlantic headland in sought-after Constantine Bay, one of North Cornwall’s most famous surfing beaches.
Having originally sold the cottage to its long-term owner 42 years ago, Mr Lillicrap was reinstructed by the vendor in April 2024 when the extended cottage failed to find a buyer through another agent. It sold through Lillicrap Chilcott to an international buyer in August for close to its £5 million guide price.
Location, location, location: Constantine Bay Cottage proved the old adage true as it sold for close to £5 million.
For Falmouth-based agent Jonathan Cunliffe, Cornwall’s elusive ‘holy grail’ is a south-facing country house or farmhouse set within its own land with sea views. In September 2023, he found just such a property in secluded Trevascus Farm on the scenic Roseland Peninsula, close to the Caerhays Castle estate and the coast, nine miles from St Austell and 13 miles from Truro.
First offered for sale that year, it was later withdrawn when the transaction stalled. However, persistence paid off in November 2025, when, following its relaunch at a guide price of £3.25 million, Trevascus was acquired by the original applicants, who by then had succeeded in selling their house in Gloucestershire.
After a few ups and downs Jonathan Cunliffe sold the 'holy grail' property that is Trevascus.
In East Anglia, Jonathan Penn of Jackson-Stops in Ipswich cites the sale — at a guide price of £3.5 million — of Grade II-listed Knodishall Place, a classic, seven-bedroom, Georgian former rectory situated five miles from Aldeburgh and the Suffolk Heritage Coast, as one very few properties to have breached the £3 million barrier in the region, let alone in Suffolk, this year.
‘The whole process took just six weeks: having agreed the sale in late June, we exchanged in early August with completion in late August. Interestingly, the sale was achieved despite the Suffolk coastal area being beset with concerns regarding the works and proposals relating to the Sizewell C nuclear power plant and the offshore-wind transmission projects,’ says Mr Penn.
Knodishill Place went from offer to completion in six weeks, at over £3 million.
Annabel Blackett, who heads up Strutt & Parker’s operations in the North and Scotland, points to an encouraging number of sales achieved in Yorkshire during the months of September and October, notably that of imposing Grade I-listed Howsham Hall, set in some 80 acres of rolling parkland, lawns, meadows and woodland on the banks of the River Derwent, 11 miles north-east of York, on the edge of the Howardian Hills National Landscape.
Previously run as a prep school and latterly as an upmarket wedding venue, competitive bidding led to a sale for more than its £5 million guide price.
Howsham Hall went for over its £5 million asking price following a bidding process.
Over in Cheshire, Charlie Kannreuther of Savills in Chester has been much impressed by sales such as that of Stretton Old Hall near Warrington, which saw local buyers competing with regional purchasers to secure a sale at a guide price of £2.965 million.
Savills sold Stretton Old Hall for £2.965 million.
Having also seen a number of sales recorded in the wake of the Budget, he expects a lively start to the year in 2026, given that many of the independent schools in the area hold Common Entrance exams in January, thereby providing the impetus for families to set the wheels in motion for a house move in the early spring.
