Digs in Britain Fit for a King
Real estate agent Andrew Perratt is navigating his sporty black coupe along a bumpy, winding road that leads to a home he is trying to sell in this postwar Glasgow suburb.
“The condition of the property is fabulous,” Perratt, 28, says as he talks up his listing in a warm Scottish accent. “The quality of the upgrade is fantastic.”
Perratt possesses many of the traits of those who ply his trade: a slick car, fine clothes and a knack for easy conversation. Yet as he pulls up to the property, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary agent.
His listing boasts a 40-foot tower with walls at least 6 feet thick and a ground floor enclosed in a stone vault--perfect for fending off unexpected visitors armed with bows and arrows.
The unusual dwelling embodies that old adage “A man’s home is his castle,” because it is one. Perratt is trying to sell a 15th century Scottish keep--an increasingly difficult feat in today’s world.
Challenges for agents such as Perratt range from a tight inventory to encroaching suburbia. In fact, bids that start at only $500,000 are being accepted on Perratt’s property, Mains Castle, because a modern-day town has inched toward its thick walls.
Other complications include an increasing number of foreign shoppers who often are clueless about what owning a castle entails. It’s a privilege that can come with mind-numbing heating bills and repairs that can cost far more than the original structure.
“We get quite a lot of people you might call daydreamers who think they’d like to own one, but the money isn’t there,” said Colin Strang Steel, an estate agent with Knight Frank, which specializes in castle sales.
For example, one castle owner faced with a leaky roof is selling a scenic mountain ridge to raise the millions of dollars he needs to fix it.
“A slate roof has to be done every 125 years,” said Richard Wilkin of the London-based Historic Houses Assn., which represents owners of 1,500 properties of architectural significance in Britain. “But with some of these houses, you’re talking about a roof that is in acres.”
Such challenges fail to dissuade die-hard castle shoppers whose desire to own one is matched by the depth of their pockets. They covet the unique properties for their historical value, the privacy they offer, the rental income they can generate or the prestige they seem to instantly bestow.
“Both buyers and sellers are wonderfully eccentric,” said Jamie Macnab, a director with FPD Savills, the international property consulting firm that employs Perratt. “Nobody who lives a straightforward life chooses to buy a castle, because they are so bloody uncomfortable.”
“They are trophy properties,” added John Coleman, a partner with Knight Frank who works in the company’s Edinburgh, Scotland, office. “ ‘Come and stay at my castle’ is a great thing to be able to say to somebody.’
Granted, that’s not why they were built.
Castles rose during the Middle Ages as the strongholds of lairds and noblemen, some of whom relied on surrounding estates to grow crops and raise livestock. The owners used their profits to help cover the cost of running and maintaining their fortresses, to which they retreated in times of war.
But over the centuries, much of their land was sold off in parcels, leaving big, aging buildings standing on much smaller patches of property. Consequently, modern-day owners, particularly those of large castles, typically must possess vast independent wealth because they don’t have the luxury of income-producing estates.
These Days, New Money Comes Into Picture
The influx of foreign shoppers, agents say, has made it increasingly difficult to determine whether a prospective buyer can afford to own a castle. That is a change from earlier times, they add, when buyers usually tended to be home-grown.
“There used to be a lot more well-known, old-money buyers,” Coleman said. “They understand this sort of property.”
Cost of ownership can include staff, general maintenance and large-scale refurbishing. A rule of thumb, Coleman said, is that someone considering a $2-million castle should have $3 million in the bank, although it’s not a requirement.
“You’ll need the money from the interest on the other $1 million to run it,” he said.
It’s not uncommon, Coleman added, for buyers to pay cash for their castles.
Most high-end agencies do their best to vet potential clients. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking the right questions.
“If they have six kids in private schools and spend their holidays in St. Tropez, they can probably afford a castle,” said James Lawrie, a partner with London-based Strutt & Parker estate agents.
Lawrie sold Lympne Castle last year to a London businessman and his family for about $6 million. The sprawling estate is on England’s southeastern coast in Kent and includes a 13th century castle, a large home that was added in 1907 and four cottages--all on about 137 acres.
Strang Steel says castle shoppers making the rounds in Scotland in recent years have increasingly come from Russia, the Netherlands, Germany and the United States.
“They are after a rich piece of Scottish history, and they want something that is prestigious and impressive,” Strang Steel said.
Perhaps one reason for the broad interest is that the properties are marketed internationally. Scotland is home to an estimated 2,500 castles and castle ruins, according to Martin Coventry, author of “The Castles of Scotland.” Most of the castles that come on the market in Britain are in Scotland, said Penny Churchill, property correspondent for Country Life magazine, which one agent dubbed the bible of castles and country homes.
Coleman said eight Americans have flown from the U.S. to look at Dalnaglar Castle in Perthshire, which he is selling on behalf of an architect’s widow who is downsizing. Coleman is fielding bids that start at $1.5 million on Dalnaglar, which is being marketed as a “Little Balmoral” because of its resemblance to Queen Elizabeth II’s holiday palace.
Strang Steel is peddling Cloncaird Castle in Ayrshire for a Canadian couple who are seeking to unload one of their multiple homes. The asking price for the property, which is being marketed as a “magnificent” turreted castle of 15th century origins, is about $3.5 million.
At the top of the market for castles in Britain are the authentic fortified variety built in medieval times. They rarely are for sale. It’s not uncommon for as few as two a year to come on the market, and there have been years when none has, insiders say.
A higher number of so-called mock castles--large, stately homes built between the 16th and the mid-18th centuries to resemble their predecessors--fill out the market. Opinions differ, however, on when one period ends and the other begins--as well as on what constitutes a castle. (Most experts define castles as pre-16th century fortified buildings.)
The buildings come in a range of sizes and styles, according to one agent, beginning with what amounts to a three-bedroom townhouse in a tower and progressing to a 100-room monstrosity.
Perratt, who is based in Glasgow, is selling Mains Castle for client Ruth Cooper, a college director who bought the property in 1998. Cooper planned to use the castle as a home as well as a venue for catered weddings and corporate business events.
But she is abandoning her plans after a decision by the town council to reclassify the building from residential to hotel status because of her plans to rent it out.
Strict laws that govern such historic buildings, according to Cooper, do not allow her to respond to the change in classification by making Mains handicap-accessible, among other upgrades. Nor can she afford her mortgage without the additional income generated by her side business.
“It will be heartbreaking to leave,” Cooper said. “I love it here. It’s very peaceful.”
A Minstrels Gallery, a Bowl of Cannonballs
Once inside the four-story castle, one does indeed easily forget the outside world.
The massive sandstone monolith features few windows, and, because its walls are so thick, it feels much smaller inside than it appears from the outside. But what it lacks in lighting and airiness it makes up for in history. The sales brochure reads like a novella written in medieval realty-speak.
“Rising through the height of the building in the southwest corner is a spiral turnpike stair cunningly planned to turn in a clockwise direction, giving a right-handed swordsman the advantage over an intruder trying to fight his way up,” reads a description of a steep stone staircase that winds through the building.
The ground floor contains the vaulted room that was once used to house servants and livestock during the winter and in times of attack. A small minstrels gallery--just the thing for performing friends--overlooks the room, which is decorated with a bowl of cannonballs that Cooper said she found at the site. The floor of the adjacent bathroom has a covered opening through which bad guys were dropped into the castle’s original pit prison.
The second floor is home to the Great Hall, which once was a courtroom but now is a modern-day great room that includes the kitchen. An open cooking area with a bright red stove runs along one wall, and a space for a breakfast nook is carved into the opposite wall.
Two bedrooms take up the third floor, including the ladies quarters, featuring a hand-painted ceiling.
An office, a smaller kitchen and a bathroom are on the fourth floor, which provides access to the castle’s rooftop battlement via a small hatch.
The view from one side of the battlement--no longer used as a vantage point for pouring boiling oil on unwanted visitors--is one of wild Scottish beauty, complete with a fox frolicking in a field of lush green grass. The opposite side, however, overlooks a man-made lake and a subdivision of new homes.
Owners Won’t Get the Medieval Views
Perratt acknowledges that buyers seeking the privacy of a castle find the view of the homes less than pleasing.
“The majority of people looking for a castle want something very, very rural,” he said. “This is a castle in a town.”
“It’s such a big problem,” Macnab agreed, referring to ever-encroaching civilization. “With genuine castles, a lot of them fell into ruin and the land around them has changed.”
Those toying with the idea of owning a castle can try out the lifestyle by renting one. Of course, for some buyers, a castle is simply not enough.
For those special buyers, FPDSavills spokesman John Vaughan believes that he has just the property: His agency recently secured the listing for Gigha, a 3,400-acre Scottish island with a mansion, 37 cottages, a hotel, village shop and pub.
