Pastures new! Shepherd’s hut close to UK’s most expensive seaside town hits market for £475,000 (but you’ll need to visit the barn next door for the loo)
- EXCLUSIVE: Hut on Devon coast near Salcombe is on the market for £475,000
- Read more: What happened next for the million-pound Omaze home winners?
A tiny shepherd’s hut close to Britain’s priciest seaside town has gone on sale for almost half a million pounds – twice the UK average house price.
The green four-wheeled hut is advertised by estate agents for offers over £475,000.
It boasts mains electricity and water but the site’s only toilet is located in a neighbouring stone barn.
The hut is on an acre of land overlooking a stunning stretch of the South Devon coastline as well as being close to Salcombe where homes sell for an average of £1.2million.
It is advertised with ‘potential change of use to residential’ subject to planning permission but the asking price still dwarfs the current UK average of £287,880.
The property, which is just miles from Salcombe, a popular tourist destination in the south west county, is on the market for offers over £475,000
The green four-wheeled shed (far left) looks out over magnificent views of the Devon seascape
But house hunters with money to burn may also be tempted by a two-bed apartment in a period villa overlooking Lake Como in Italy currently listed for £470,000 or a French Chateau with five bedrooms and 1.3 hectares of land for £500,000.
David Cameron famously bought a shepherd’s hut in 2017 to write his memoirs after stepping down as Prime Minister, paying £25,000 for it.
He was reportedly so impressed he later bought a second hut for his Cornish holiday home.
The land overlooks over the Devon coast and is just miles away from Salcombe, the most expensive seaside town in the UK
Houses in nearby Salcombe are sold for an average of £1.2million – far over the UK average price of £287,880
The hut is on an acre of land overlooking a stunning stretch of the South Devon coastline and can be converted to residential use
Locals in Salcombe this week voiced frustrations at the news that prices have risen 123 per cent in a decade and an astonishing 33 per cent in a year
The neighbouring barn boasts electricity and running water and has the only toilet currently available on the site
In 2021, a sheep farmer from Dorset was outbid on a dilapidated late Victorian hut in the grounds of a country house when it sold for £16,000 – 20 times its £800 estimate – to a wealthy Londoner.
Locals in Salcombe this week voiced frustrations at the news that prices have risen 123 per cent in a decade and an astonishing 33 per cent in a year.
Julian Brazil, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader, said: ‘The problem is that the key workers… not just the teachers and the nurses and the care workers, but also the cleaners and the dustman and the postmen and basically everyone that keeps it going, just cannot afford to live down here.’
For a similar price, travellers with money burning a hole in their pocket could buy this five-bedroom home in Vire, Calvados, in France
The driveway to the property in Vire. The mock castle certainly offers more space than the Salcombe-based hut – and similar country views
If France is not your favourite holiday destination, this two-bed flat on Lake Como could be yours instead, for the same price as the hut in Devon
The beautiful shared gardens for the two-bedroom flat in Lake Como offer similarly stunning views to the Salcombe hut
Beth Hillier, owner of beach shop Aloft, said she thinks Salcombe’s exclusivity is what appeals to the super rich.
She said: ‘It’s an expensive place to be and that’s what the attraction has been.
‘It’s this little unknown spot that people have discovered over the years [with] a very tasteful, relaxed pace of life.
‘I do think people like the feeling that they’re somewhere expensive, and it’s just got that sort of very relaxed vibe where people stopped life and got off the treadmill for a week.’
South Hams council declared a housing crisis in 2021 and councillors voted unanimously last year to back a policy where council tax on second homes would be charged at double the usual rate.
But a tax loophole has reportedly allowed 1,900 second homes in the area to switch to business rates and pay no council tax at all.
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