Clearly I'm not in the know on this particular topic:
10 things estate owners love
1. Having a lot of equity in their portfolio. ‘It makes it relatively easy and cheap to borrow money at the moment,' explains Philip Eddell of Savills' country-house consultancy.
I want equity and lots of it!
2. The eco-friendly future's bright for landowners. ‘Nearly all of the answers to global warming and global population growth are either local, land or natural resource based all things that estates are well placed to meet,' adds Mr Eddell.
I want my own renewable resources!
3. The pleasure to be derived from the continuity of ownership and open landlord and tenant relationships. ‘When you buy an estate, you often take on the "Lord of the manor" responsibilities, such as hosting the village fête or having the village cricket pitch on your grounds, and people like taking on that role,' says Mark McAndrew of Strutt & Parker's estates department.
I want the local rugby club to play on my pitch!
4. Grants that enable habitat management and repair funds for traditional farm buildings.
Grant money? Gimee, gimee!
5. The opportunity presented by future housing shortages.
Hovels for rent! Hovels for rent!
6. Farming. Knight Frank's latest research forecasts that farmland values are going to double in value in the next few years, possibly breaking the £10,000/acre barrier in 2015. ‘Plus, they're making 15% more this year on sub-sidies alone because the Euro was so strong on the day the European Central Bank fixed the exchange rate,' adds Andrew Shirley, head of research at Knight Frank.
At the current exchange rate 10,000 pounds = $16,624, you can call me Mr Greenjeans for that kind of "harvest."
7. Income possibilities from alternative markets such as leisure, minerals, phone masts, restrictive covenants ‘and don't forget the film industry, which may want the house or the land for a location shoot,' points out Douglas Mackellar from Savills' office in Cheltenham.
I want a cell phone tower combination windfarm up on the hill!
8. Country sports. ‘Landowners regard the pursuit of hunting, shooting and fishing and many other field sports as one of the most virtuous and supreme privileges of rural landownership,' believes Angus Harley of Knight Frank's rural consultancy. ‘Country sports are also linked closely to conservation and underpin the rural economy in many areas.'
Oh to be a country gentleman... Sorry old chap, but you just can't fish, hunt, stand, park, look, think about or even imagine here.
9. The cordon sanitaire of owning land around your property and the peace and quiet that comes from having a buffer against the outside world.
Oh look honey some of the little people are looking our way. I wonder what it must be like to be just regular folk?
10. Tax breaks such as Agricultural Property Relief, which means you can pass the farmland within the estate on to your children without them paying Inheritance Tax.
If I have lots of money and used some of it to buy lots of land, lots of my money goes to taxes, therefore I need a tax break. Yes?
We're obviously on the path to the European model of government at this point in the game. This must be what the regular folk have to look forward to. Inspiring is it not?
