Media pimped homes for sale - monitor thread

The two-bedroom house was to be Waxman's 38th – and most ambitious – development project. "At the time it was just a hole in the ground with four walls around it," he says. "We'd dismantled the interior of the house and dug down 3.4 metres. No one has done this in London before."

The asking price is £12 million – which seems a lot of money for a three-bedroom mews house, but according to the selling agent, it is a one-off. "By digging down so deep Alan was able to align all the ceiling heights and ensure the rooms are of good volumes. And the finish is of the highest level."

21 Grosvenor Crescent Mews is on the market with Knight Frank for £12 million

The advertised price is £61,450 more than what it was sold for three years ago.

Jean, and her husband Carl Davis, the prolific composer and conductor, have found that running two is impossible, and the couple have decided to sell the Surrey bolthole they bought eight years ago.

They were looking for a refuge from their Chelsea home - a four-storey 18th Century townhouse with a former factory in the garden which they converted into a studio and offices for Carl's business.

Four years ago, they also bought the converted carriage house at the back, and that is now the headquarters of Carl's new record company, the Carl Davis Collection.

The assembly of buildings in such a prime London location is probably worth well over £5million.

'We wanted somewhere to separate work and home,' says Carl, 73,

And that has been part of the couple's problem - work followed them to their new house.

No sooner had they moved into the three-storey, five-bedroom house, which they bought for just over £1 million, than Carl was writing music at a desk overlooking its lake;

KEY FACTS
Price: £2.25million. Bedrooms: Five. Bathrooms: Three. Reception rooms: Four. Other amenities: Indoor swimming pool, triple garage, two-acre garden with mature trees, lake and waterfall.

This Is Surrey
Friday, July 02, 2010



Reigate has been the main home of actress Jean Boht, famous for her role in the classic sitcom Bread, for nine years now.

Jean and her composer husband Carl Davis moved into their house tucked into the North Downs in 2001 and the couple, who have two grown-up daughters and three grandchildren, love living in the town.

"I think it's a wonderful high street – I love it. I love the variety of shops. I love the cafes and all the public houses – they have wonderful food. I just love the whole area," enthuses Jean.

The actress, who also has a house and office in Chelsea, likes to enjoy her garden at her Reigate pad, which, at two acres, includes a lake, sweeping lawns and a swimming pool.

"Carl writes music there," she says of the home. "He finds it very musically creative. The kids come down – we have a big swimming pool. It's quietly domestic so we get away from work."

Michael and Nicola Keane are daring downsizers. They have put their six-bedroom, 17th-century Oxfordshire house with pool and tennis court up for sale for £3.5 million, in the hope of moving somewhere smaller.

The downturn has not deterred them. “The market came to a grinding halt in the autumn of last year, but by midsummer things started to go,” says Michael Keane, 49, who owns a software company. “When things look bad everyone wants to hold off. But in the UK we have very limited supply, and when things pick up people start to think that they might miss the boat. I assume that wewill have it sold by October, or we will wait until next year. But I am optimistic.”

The Keanes bought Wittenham House for “in the region of £825,000” 13 years ago. Now that two of their children have left home, and the other two are away much of the time, they intend to buy in Switzerland, where Michael has family, and find something smaller in Oxfordshire.

“We want something a bit more lock-up-and-leave,” says Keane. “At the end of the day we are sitting there, just the two of us and the dogs, and wondering why it is so quiet. It makes you realise that you have to move on to the next stage.”

And there are more flat-screen televisions than I’ve ever seen under a single roof. Most of them were left on when I visited, tuned softly (in the empty house) to the Bloomberg financial channel. The house does not belong to a footballer.

Anyway. The current owner has been in residence, with wife and daughter, for 11 years.

Priory Farm, Bowdon, Cheshire, £4m