A vastu-compliant north London house, £9.5m with Arlington Residential.

By Andrea Marechal Watson

Vastu, often seen as an Indian version of feng shui, dates back thousands of years. Tips for house construction include performing puja rituals on auspicious dates, preferably after consulting an astrologer.

The location and shape of the plot, light, water and internal arrangements of doors, windows and rooms are considered vital to ensuring the health and well-being of occupants.

Vastu has begun to pop up on the UK’s highly international property market. “Feng shui is a big thing for many of our clients, who will not set foot in a property unless it has had the once-over from their feng shui master,” says Penny Mosgrove of Quintessentially Estates, an estate agent. “A similar set of principles exist in vastu shastra.

“This year I was asked to find a home in Notting Hill that was vastu-compliant. There had to be various ‘main’ entrances, no bathroom near the main door, doors that were not black, a door that opened in a clockwise manner and an entrance that had not got a shoe rack near it, nor a bin.

“All mirrors needed to be on the north wall and social rooms needed to face north or at least north-east. At the centre it required a brahmasthan, which is a space for reflection without any obstructions to it.” Eventually, the right house was located and bought.

A flat in north London, £5.8m, with Arlington Residential.

There is a growing Indian community in London, active at the middle to top end of the property market. Following changes in 2015 to the Liberalised Remittance Scheme in India, which increased the capital that buyers can bring into the UK to $250,000 (£195,000) per person per year, there was a surge of buyers.

“Indian buyers are still very prevalent in London – especially when you look at the wider number of Indians that are buying, known as non-resident Indians,” says Camilla Dell, of buying agency Black Brick. “Indian resident buyers are still somewhat limited in what they can spend on an overseas property due to exchange control in India. Although the rules have become more relaxed, families are only allowed to transfer $250,000 per family member per year outside of India.

“So a family of four, after two years, would have a budget of $2 million to spend on a property. Non-resident Indian buyers are not subject to the same restrictions and so tend to have higher budgets.”

“We noticed a significant increase in Indian buyers over the last six months,” adds Simon Garcia of Quintessentially Estates. “The softening of prices and fall in the value of sterling both played a part, as many trade in dollars.”

Pimlico and Westminster accounted for around a third of all purchases by these families, both as investments and homes. Marylebone, with its boutique shops and village feel, is also popular.

Around half of Indian buyers search for vastu-compliant properties, and for those who do, it’s a deal-breaker for a sale. “This continues to be very difficult to fulfil, particularly on properties that are already built,” says Dell.

Marc Schneiderman, director of estate agency Arlington Residential, recently sold an £8 million house in St John’s Wood to an Indian family after they dismissed several other houses due to their orientation. “Their vastu adviser inspected the house and made suggestions such as removing the water fountains in the garden and repositioning furniture,” he says.

There are advantages to buying in a new development. “Last week [we] concluded a deal for a non-resident Indian client on an off-plan development,” says Dell. “The developer was open to changing the layout to meet our client’s vastu requirements.” Buying off-plan with staged payments is also easier for buyers affected by the limits of exchange control.

 

 

Many Americans would have us know that they “saved” us from the Germans in the Second World War. As we approach the 75th anniversary of the Normandy Landings, I’ll leave that heated debate for another day.

These American buyers can now get a 40 per cent discount on what they might have paid at the top of the market. Property prices in many areas of prime central London have fallen 15 to 20 per cent, and they have the exchange rate behind them too: in July 2014, the pound was worth $1.71, but in the last two years it has traded between $1.27 and $1.43. 

“Our US clients are not put off by Brexit or the threat of a Corbyn government; instead, they view the market as a good buying opportunity,” says Camilla Dell, of Black Brick.

“Our largest transaction for a US client – more than £20 million – was because he had decided to relocate to London and run his technology business from here. After Silicon Valley, London is the next best place for IT entrepreneurs. We have the infrastructure and talent to be able to support companies like this.”  

Donald and Melania Trump arriving in the UK last year. He’s visiting the UK again in June CREDIT: AFP

These buyers are largely coming from New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago, as well as a few from Houston and Dallas, according to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kay & Co. They’re prepared to pay upwards of £10 million on average, looking in Marylebone, Hyde Park and King’s Cross, and for larger family houses in Mayfair, Belgravia, Hampstead, Notting Hill and St John’s Wood.

It fits in with a general picture of returning health for the high-end market, too. Knight Frank said earlier this month that the number of offers made (not just by Americans) for these pricey properties in the first three months of this year was the highest in more than 10 years. The level of new buyers was also at the highest figure since 2014, when prices were at their peak. 

Transactions have increased in prime central London among homes priced under £1m, between £1m and £2m, and over £5m, according to LonRes. It’s the market for homes between £2m and £5m that is suffering the most, where the level of sales continue to fall. 

So what’s changed? Political uncertainty remains, albeit in the background. Sky-high stamp duty, which decimated the market four years ago, is still a major factor. It’s a more imperceptible shift of momentum: a mixture of sellers’ increasing realism combined with buyers getting bored of waiting to see what happens with Brexit. 

But it’s not all sunshine after the storm in the prime central London market: there’s been a 39 per cent fall in the number of new properties listed in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2018. 

That’s proving to be one of the biggest problems for the ultra-rich, as there aren’t enough suitably high-end, ultra luxurious properties to buy. 

By Sophie Smith

House price growth remained sluggish in February, with prices just 0.4pc higher than the same time last year, according to Nationwide’s latest house price index.

While this is an improvement on the 0.1pc growth in January, prices had been rising by around 2pc last year. The average house price is now £211,304, around £3,000 cheaper than in October.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said the subdued activity in the housing market was due to weakened consumer confidence in the face of political and economic uncertainty.

Many sellers and buyers have adopted a “wait-and-see” approach as Britain nears its exit from the European Union next month.

Mr Gardner said, “Measures of consumer confidence weakened around the turn of the year and surveyors reported a further fall in new buyer enquiries over the same period.

“While the number of properties coming onto the market also slowed, this doesn’t appear to have been enough to prevent a modest shift in the balance of demand and supply in favour of buyers in recent months.” 

Jonathan Samuels, chief executive of property lender Octane Capital, said the property market was “on its knees”. He added that buyer sentiment had “shattered” despite a strong employment rate, low borrowing rates and below-target inflation.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that while the annual growth rate remained well below last year’s February average of 2.1pc, he “doubt[s] it will sink much lower”. 

“Brexit uncertainty is prompting some potential home-buyers to delay purchases, but the pick-up in mortgage approvals in January suggests the aggregate impact has been modest so far. The wider economic picture remains supportive of house prices. The unemployment rate is at a 43-year low, wage growth has picked up and mortgage rates remain very low.”

Camilla Dell, managing partner at buying agent Black Brick, argued that Brexit was only “part of the story”. “A big reason why price growth is sluggish is because of tax. The market is struggling with extortionate levels of stamp duty and this is having an effect,” she said.

“We did notice a big pick-up in buyer enquiries in January, which does seem to suggest some pent-up demand coming through which we might see in the next round of data. There are a lot of buyers waiting in the wings who want to buy this year,” she said.

Recently published Government data shows an uptick in the rate of home ownership last year. The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said the home ownership rate in 2018 rose to 63.5pc, up from 62.6pc in 2017.

Mr Gardner said this was driven by an increase in the number of people owning their own home with a mortgage, which began to increase again last year after declining continuously since 2005.

The number of people owning their own home with a mortgage rose by 5pc over the year to 6.9 million, though this is still 20pc below the peak recorded in 2000.

Choose the right agent, buy new cushions and be available for viewings

By Annabelle Williams and David Byers

It’s only 81 days until we crack open the mince pies and mulled wine, yet it takes an average of 60 days to agree a sale on a property, from the moment it is listed. So if you are you looking to sell your home before Christmas, you better get a move on.

The British property market hardly looks encouraging for people trying to buy or sell. This week’s Nationwide index shows the average British house price rose by a sluggish 2 per cent over the past year to reach an average of £214,922. Yet the market remains full of nuances. Yorkshire and the Humber’s market, for example, rose 5.8 per cent in the third quarter of this year, while the average price in the East Midlands rose 4.8 per cent.

Even those in London, where average house prices dropped 0.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2018 — the fifth consecutive quarterly dip — have reasons to be cheerful.

According to a breakdown in property prices by postcode by Propdex, an analytics company, London’s dip is only affecting a minority of areas — 74 out of 231, mostly in west London — where prices have become too inflated and are undergoing a correction. Meanwhile, the postcode in Britain in which the most homes were sold, is in Croydon (there were 833 sales in six months), proving London’s affordable outer zones are doing fine.

However, according to research by Rightmove, a property portal, you’ll sell faster if your home is in Scotland, with Edinburgh and Glasgow experiencing an unprecedented boom. You can achieve the quickest sale anywhere in Britain in the commuter town of Livingston in west Lothian, which is a magnet for workers; it’s 40 minutes by train to both cities. Here it takes an average of 26 days for a property to be sold after appearing on Rightmove. “We’re in the centre of Scotland, with good commuter links to Edinburgh and Glasgow and we’re very affordable — you can buy an ex-local authority three-bedroom terraced house from £100,000 and a four-bedroom detached house for £300,000,” says Simon Thomas, the owner of Remax, an estate agency in Livingston. This compares favourably with Edinburgh, where flats start at £200,000.

Scottish authorities make up six of the seven fastest-selling areas, and include Glasgow (31 days) and Edinburgh (28). Other notable areas in the top 20 include booming areas of the West and East Midlands, where property prices are rising rapidly. Among these are Coventry (36 days), Rugby (36), Corby (37), Kettering (37), Redditch (38) and Bromsgrove (39). In London the fastest-moving areas are the most affordable — sales in Forest Gate in Newham, east London, are agreed after an average of 43 days — and those where middle-class families snap up properties nearest the best schools, such as Whetstone in the borough of Barnet (58 days’ selling time).

If you are struggling to sell your home, we have asked the experts for their tips on how to get your place sold.

This six-bedroom house in Buckland Newton, Dorchester, is on sale for £2.25 million with Knight Frank.

Price
Caspar Harvard-Walls, a partner at Black Brick, a buying agency, says sellers need to be “extremely realistic” about the price their property will fetch. “It’s a buyer’s market,” he says. “The most important thing you can do is ensure it is priced sensibly, otherwise you are just wasting time.” He advises sellers avoid relying on estate agent estimates — after all, they are trying to win your instruction. Think about whether your asking price reflects the market conditions. Look at sales of comparable properties online, and if those sales were a while ago, consider deducting something from the price.

Prepare for a quick sale
Thea Carroll, a senior buying consultant at the Buying Solution, a buying agency, says sellers who are serious about shifting their property before the end of the year should make arrangements to rent somewhere. Be clear with buyers that you’re prepared to move. “The worst thing you can do is be ambivalent with buyers. Give the buyer an element of security about how you will move your family out of your home, and tell them you are keen to exchange and complete before Christmas.”

Carroll says that this could also be a good bargaining chip when it comes to your property’s sale price. “Tell buyers the reason you are not being weak on pricing is because you are being flexible with your moving date,” she says.

Mark Hayward of NAEA Propertymark, a professional body for estate agents, says: “Instruct your solicitor to prepare contracts and seek answers to preliminary inquiries, so when a buyer is found there won’t be any delays. If your house has been extended, obtain copies of planning consents and building regulations.”

In Barnes, southwest London, this house with three bedrooms is on sale for £3.2 million with Marsh & Parsons.

Choose your agent carefully
How did you choose your agent? Was it based on its fee, because it is the best-known in the area, or its expertise in selling homes like yours? “We see people who are selling with completely the wrong agency. The days have gone when you could instruct an agency and wait. The seller has to become far more involved in the process,” says Harvard-Walls.

Carroll says the autumn may be time to appoint another agency. “Properties go stale in the run-up to Christmas. If an agency has had your property all summer I would ask to see their viewing numbers, and if you are only getting one or two a week, appoint another agency and negotiate a lower fee.”

Harvard-Walls advises people to ask prospective agencies to show them examples of similar homes that have been sold and choose an agency that frequently sells properties in your segment of the market.

Look at the agency’s marketing material for your property. If the photos of your home show spring flowers and sunny skies, have some autumnal photos taken.

This house in Holland Park, west London, has five bedrooms and is on sale for £8.25 million through Marsh & Parson

Presentation
“Towards the end of the year, with Hallowe’en and bonfire night, the chintz and decorations start to appear. Try to keep the family home neutral and clear of tatt,” Carroll says.

Regularly ask your agency for feedback from viewings and act on what prospective buyers are saying. Harvard-Walls says he knew of one seller who was told by prospective buyers that the garden was a selling point, but not in its present state. The seller spent £5,000 doing up the garden and shortly afterwards secured a sale.

Mhairi Coyle, a designer at Mhairi Coyle Interiors, says that sellers should wash windows, internal and external paintwork, and touch up any nicks on skirting boards and walls. Consider refreshing your interiors with modern bedspreads, curtains and hide old-fashioned sofas with throws.

Coyle says: “There are inexpensive things to choose from everywhere now. The market has changed drastically, you never used to be able to get anything stylish in cheaper shops.” She recommends people look at H&M, French Connection and Habitat for affordable furnishings.

Consider moving some furniture into storage. Coyle says: “More houses would sell if they had a couple of pieces of furniture in each room. The less stuff you have, the easier it is for people to see themselves in the space.”

Coyle also worked with a couple who bought new cupboard doors for their kitchen in a makeover aimed at selling their home. “They didn’t want to redo the kitchen, but they needed to refresh it.” She recommends companies such as Naked Doors, or Superfront if you have Ikea furniture that needs a stylish overhaul.

Be available
Harvard-Walls says he has had sellers make things tricky for people to view their home. Even if you have endured many months of viewings, try to be flexible. “You have to work with your agent to make your home available at short notice and outside working hours,” he says.

By Zoe Dare Hall

With the “improve, don’t move” mantra ringing in their ears – sometimes fuelled by a reluctance to pay the huge stamp duty bill involved in upsizing to a bigger house – many homeowners are finding a new way to extend. They’re buying next door.

In certain situations, it can make perfect sense. You love your house and the location, but you need more space, perhaps because of boomerang children or grandparents moving in, or some other millennial or multi-generational arrangement. You’ve probably already extended into the loft, out the back and maybe even underground. So should the chance arise to extend into next door too, why wouldn’t you do it?

There’s still stamp duty to pay, of course, but it will most likely be a lesser sum to buy a neighbouring property of similar size to your own than it would to upgrade to a far bigger house (even taking the three per cent surcharge for second homes into ­account). “There will be the costs of ­architects, builders and solicitors too, but it will still represent a considerable saving on the usual costs of selling a home and buying a bigger one,” says Sara Ransom of buying agent Stacks Property Search.

There may even be some financial gain in buying next door. “I encourage my clients to do so at every opportunity, where their financial position allows,” says Marc Schneiderman, of estate agency Arlington Residential. Even when the space isn’t needed immediately, he is looking long term at the investment value of having a handily located spare property to rent out, to eventually sell as a project for someone else to convert, or use some of next door’s garden to add to your own. “You may only get the opportunity once to buy next door, so when it does become available, consider it very closely,” he says.

Making a huge profit is rarely the motivating factor behind such projects, as the whole may not be worth more than the sum of its parts. Two adjoining cottages were recently available in Devon’s Culm Valley for a joint price of £695,000 through Greenslade Taylor Hunt. “If they were sold separately, would they be worth more than £350,000 each? Probably,” says Gideon Sumption of Stacks. “It rarely makes financial sense to join two properties, unless there is some marriage value to be released, such as restoring a shared drive to single ownership, or even getting rid of an unpleasant neighbour.”

 

Three Cotswold cottages which can be knocked together, on the market through Strutt & Parker.

For most people who carry out this kind of conversion, it’s all about the lifestyle or emotional benefits. It attracts buyers across the entire property spectrum, from small country cottages to huge central London apartments. “If it enhances your quality of life, forget about the end value and go for it, and you may well make an unintentional stamp duty saving,” says Sumption.

At the priciest end of the knock-through spectrum, there’s Trevor Square in Kensington, Harrods’ former Grade I listed depository. Nick and Christian Candy, the developers, briefly lived in the building and in 2006 turned four of the apartments into one vast, six-bedroom duplex that spans 6,400 sq ft and is now on sale for £30 million through Harrods Estates. “Buyers in this market want purpose-built lateral living with a 24/7 concierge and parking, and this ginormous property comes with four large, secure parking spaces,” says Shaun Drummond, sales director of Harrods Estates.

The huge duplex made from four apartments on Trevor Square, £30 million through Harrods Estates

In some London boroughs – Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster are the notable ones – reducing the housing stock by knocking two into one goes against their targets to increase supply of new homes, so owners are now unlikely to be granted permission. “Even where a house has a mews behind, if it has been two separate households paying two lots of council tax, it will be a challenge to secure planning,” says Brendan Roberts, director at Aylesford International.

Apartments can lend themselves more readily to this kind of redevelopment, either by creating a duplex by knocking into the flat above or below, or by knocking into the flat next door, in a mansion block for example – provided you have the consent of the freeholder/landlord and the local council. “You would also need to amalgamate the leases, which is potentially complicated,” says Simon Tollit, co-founder and director of Tedworth Property.

In some London boroughs, reducing the housing stock by knocking two into one goes against their targets to increase supply of new homes, so owners are now unlikely to be granted permission

In the most expensive areas of London, “double laterals” are also popular, says David Lee, head of sales at Pastor Real Estate. That’s where two adjoining flats span two buildings, satisfying wealthy buyers’ tastes for large, lateral space that maximises light and eliminates staircases and corridors that waste room.

“Some excellent examples can be found in South Kensington, where a number of stucco-fronted period buildings have been brought together to form exceptionally wide residences, particularly those located on first floors, which tend to have the highest ceilings and grandest proportions,” adds Lee.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are rural opportunities crying out to be restored into one. Occasionally, you will find an entire row of two-up, two-down farmworkers’ cottages up for sale, says Bruce King, director at Cheffins estate agency in Cambridge. “The properties that work best in this situation are not high value so even when you factor in the buying and conversion costs, it can be cheaper than buying one property,” he says. “They don’t come up very often, so keep an eye on property auctions and private treaty sales, or ask local farmers and landowners.”

Nicholas and Jill Leader’s house in Canterbury, £599,950 with Strutt & Parker

Martin Walshe, of Cheffins, expects demand for knock-throughs to rise in central Cambridge, too, where city centre stock is an issue. He mentions a current example on the market: two neighbouring Victorian terraced houses in Romsey Town, priced at £550,000 for the three-bedroom, and £400,000 for the two-bedroom. Both are owned by the same couple, who live in one and rent out the other.

Walshe suggests knocking through the two would cost £100,000, including enclosing the driveway that links them with a modern, glass walkway. “It works best in city centre homes when the houses need complete modernisation and can be picked up at lower prices, reconfigured and then sold at a premium,” he adds.

Nicholas and Jill Leader’s house in Canterbury, £599,950 with Strutt & Parker.

One issue to avoid is creating a super-sized house whose value is out of proportion with what’s around it – as Jamie Oliver discovered. He spent millions conjoining two Primrose Hill properties into one, which failed to sell a few years ago. He then had to reinstate it as two separate houses.

It’s the “best house in the street” syndrome that no one really wants, says Camilla Dell, managing partner at Black Brick buying agency, which sources prime London property. “If you knock two houses together on a street where the average house price is £3 million, it’s unlikely a buyer with £6 million will want to buy there. They will choose a better street. The key is to consider the surrounding area and work within the confines of the market,” she says.

It can be a lot of hassle reconfiguring two properties from scratch, including getting rid of surplus staircases and kitchens

It’s also a lot of hassle reconfiguring two properties from scratch, including getting rid of surplus staircases and kitchens. But without re-designing the newly combined property, you may end up with odd and compromised space. “In London, especially, integrating two houses is usually reserved for those with deep pockets and plenty of time,” says Tollit.

Sometimes, however, knocking through is really quite simple. In ­Canterbury, Kent, within close range of the famous cathedral’s spires, retired teachers Nicholas and Jill Leader seized the opportunity to knock through and create their dream home when their neighbours announced they were ­selling up.

“We were looking for a four-bedroom house within the city walls and couldn’t find anything. We had often been to our neighbour’s house for drinks and thought about how great it would be to knock these two mirror image properties into one,” says ­Nicholas, 80.

Two houses in Cambridge, which can be knocked together, on the market with Cheffins.

Built in 1739, their original house had just a downstairs living room and small scullery, with a spiral staircase leading to one bedroom and a reduced-height attic. Their current two-in-one home – which is now on the market for £599,500 through Strutt & Parker – provides the four bedrooms they were looking for, and a large kitchen extension at the back, in place of the previous two small kitchens.

They spent about £60,000 on the conversion, filled 16 skips with rubbish, had to rewire the house completely and replumb, with the added complication of the property being in a conservation area. “The archaeological society was keen to jump down any hole we created,” adds Nicholas.

One pleasant surprise awaited them, however, when they knocked through; they found an 18th-century time capsule buried in a wall, containing a ha’penny and some toys, including a leather ball and hoop. “We replaced the capsule with some items including a letter saying we hoped whoever found it was as happy in the house as we have been,” says Nicholas.

“I still feel the sense of the two old houses. I climb the spiral staircase in No. 13 and walk along the corridor in No. 14. But it just feels like one adorable house now.”     

That means changing addresses if they feature the number four, which is considered inauspicious in China because it sounds similar to the words for “death”. Property developer Ballymore also commissioned a feng shui audit report for its Embassy Gardens project at Nine Elms in south London. The number eight is lucky, and Chinese buyers will often make offers on apartments with eight in the number or floor, explains Merlin Dormer, of buying agent Heaton & Partners. 

Earlier this year, developer One Point Six took the unusual step of designing a luxury apartment on Pont Street in Knightsbridge according to vastu shastra before putting it on the market. While this remains a niche approach, agents have to find other solutions to remedy such concerns. 

 

Where to buy for wild swimming, rowing and fishing on your doorstep

All aboard: Olympic Rower Ben Hunt-Davis and his family’s nautically themed London apartment CREDIT:DAVID ROSE

By Nicola Venning

30th October 2017, 6am

Having a home near the water has always been important to Ben Hunt-Davis. The Olympic rowing champion, who won gold at Sydney in 2000, currently lives in a five-bedroom apartment moments from the Thames in Barnes, south-west London, with his wife, Isabella, teenage daughters, Sofia and Julia, and younger son, Luca. Living in this corner of Barnes has given Hunt-Davis year-round access to the Thames from nearby Hammersmith Bridge. “I have a kayak in my garden and can take it down to the river whenever I want. My daughters currently row and I often go out with them.” The family’s top-floor apartment, which has a vast open-plan kitchen/living room with a high vaulted ceiling, a roof terrace and a communal garden, is on the market for £1.65 million with Carter Jonas.

You don’t need to be an Olympic rowing champion to enjoy an active riverside lifestyle. Living by the water’s edge, or at least near it, allows residents to dip their toes into all sorts of water-based activities that can be enjoyed year-round.

He is planning to upgrade to a house and stresses that it will, once again, be near the river. “I love being close to the water, having spent a lot of time on it,” says Hunt-Davis, who co-founded the performance consultancy Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? and works as a motivational speaker. “You get an amazing sense of space.”

Living in this corner of Barnes has given Hunt-Davis year-round access to the Thames from nearby Hammersmith Bridge. “I have a kayak in my garden and can take it down to the river whenever I want. My daughters currently row and I often go out with them.” The family’s top-floor apartment, which has a vast open-plan kitchen/living room with a high vaulted ceiling, a roof terrace and a communal garden, is on the market for £1.65 million with Carter Jonas.

You don’t need to be an Olympic rowing champion to enjoy an active riverside lifestyle. Living by the water’s edge, or at least near it, allows residents to dip their toes into all sorts of water-based activities that can be enjoyed year-round.

“There is an absolute attraction to being by the water and buyers have always loved living next to a river or the sea,” says Ed Heaton, founder of Heaton & Partners, a buying agency based in London and Newbury. He regularly receives inquiries from buyers looking for homes with a mooring. Fishing rights are also “much coveted”, he adds. “The opportunity to step out of your back door and cast a fly over a resting trout is one most fishermen can only dream about.”

A niche but growing area is wild water swimming – whatever the weather. “I’ve come across a few homes where the owners like to swim in their lake every day,” says Heaton. Such water babies might be tempted by Howells Barn, a five-bedroom converted Cotswold stone barn within the 550-acre Lower Mill Estate Nature Reserve near the Gloucestershire village of Somerford Keynes. The house (one of just two on the estate that can be bought as a principal private residence) comes with a swimming pool as well as access to a large lagoon – perfect for that early morning dip. There is also an airy lakeside cabin, should you need a rest afterwards. It’s on the market with Knight Frank for £1.95 million.

Splashing out to splash about doesn’t come cheap. Premium homes – those with a price tag of £2 million or more – on the waterfront tend to be 81 per cent more expensive than a neighbouring property without a river or sea view.

Splashing out to splash about doesn’t come cheap. Premium homes – those with a price tag of £2 million or more – on the waterfront tend to be 81 per cent more expensive than a neighbouring property without a river or sea view, according to Knight Frank.

Even the risk of flooding, which would deter most buyers, is overlooked in particularly desirable areas such as Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire and Marlow in Buckinghamshire, where “a buyer will still pay a premium,” says Heaton.

Such is the demand that in London, tens of thousands of homes have been created along the 27-mile stretch of the Thames. “The river was a very undeveloped area and there was a lot of land available to build on,” says Caspar Harvard-Walls, a partner at Black Brick buying agency. “And there is something iconic about living over the Thames.”

Not that riverside living is one big regatta. Overbuilding and a lack of transport have led prices to dip on some waterfront developments, while some schemes “can feel quite soulless if the developer has not allowed for commercial space such as cafés and restaurants,” says Harvard-Walls.

One development that will benefit from both transport facilities and social amenities is Royal Docks West, a new apartment block from Mount Anvil in east London, between the O2 Arena and ExCeL London. The 19-floor tower – one of many regeneration projects in the area – has 105 homes ranging from studios to three-bedroom flats. It is moments from Royal Victoria DLR station and not much further from Custom House station, where Crossrail is due to begin next December.

And, of course, Royal Docks West is next to an inlet of the Thames, where locals can enjoy a small beach as well as rowing, kayaking, open-water swimming and even wakeboarding. Serious water enthusiasts can catch the Emirates Air Line cable car over the river and then jump on the river bus to work.

“Rather than sit on a hot, stuffy Tube,” Heaton says, “it is so much nicer to go up the river.”