Unique Property Bulletin 21 July 2013

Hoy Ahoy

Lighthouse Cantick Head 1

Cantick Head Lighthouse Keepers’ Cottages (c) 2013 Owner’s Collection

AS OF FEBRUARY 2014 THIS PROPERTY IS OFF OF THE MARKET. PLEASE EMAIL UNIQUE PROPERTY BULLETIN FOR UP TO DATE DETAILS.

Contact Page – Unique Property Bulletin

THANKYOU. THE UNDERNOTED DESCRIPTION IS RETAINED FOR REFERENCE. IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO REACTIVATE A SALE IN PARTS, BUT AS OF FEBRUARY 2014 THE OWNER HAS DECIDED TO DELIST HER BUILDINGS & REMOVE THEM FROM SALE FOR THE TIME BEING.

Original Narrative: Here we have a Lighthouse Compound at Cantick Head with THREE former lighthouse keepers’ cottages for sale as ONE combined lot. Located on the Orcadian archipelago island of Hoy [South Walls] with fabulous sea views. Please note the Lighthouse Tower is NOT included – it is still retained and operated by the Northern Lighthouse Board.

We have just received an email from the owner of this marvellous lighthouse compound that is for sale at “Offers Over” £350,000 for the whole lot. As a slight digression, if any reader – especially former Unique Property Syndicate members – would like to consider a modest group of three joining together, it doesn’t require an “O” level in arithmetic to understand that to buy ONE of the houses within this complex of three homes would range between £110,000 and £150,000 [depending on whether it is the detached two storey Principal Lighthouse Keeper’s Dwelling, or one of the smaller former Assistant Lighthouse Keepers’ Homes]. Big house or small – pretty good value for such a splendid place to live. Past, or possibly future Unique Property Syndicate members, please email us if you would like to look at buying one of the three buildings via a properly co-ordinated offer to the owner from the syndicate solicitors for the whole lighthouse compound. Further details via ….

Syndicates – Email For More Details

The essence of Unique Property Syndicates has been proven [18 times so far]. That larger lots have fewer buyers able or willing to buy. The price of a large/complex lot reduces due to the economics of supply and demand. By putting together a small syndicate and having the lawyers co-ordinate the purchase of the whole site, then simultaneously distil the individual buildings to each syndicate member’s exclusive ownership, this can result in a very good buy all round. The Seller achieves a sale in an often challenging economic climate where successful sales are very thin on the ground. Also a property sale, where otherwise the person/s who are not too keen on buying a compound with three buildings, actually manage to buy just the one. This is a way that has yielded many decent outcomes over the past 15 years. Happy Buyer and contented Seller.

Back to Cantick Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottages.

Agency Narrative: Three former Lighthouse Keepers’ homes comprising a pair of “Stevenson ” Victorian cottages currently run as a self catering business, plus a detached three bedroom home.

Lighthouse Cantick Head Calum McRoberts

Cantick Head Lighthouse Cottages (c) 2013 Calum McRoberts

The entire property is set within an approximate acre of walled grounds. Over a mile from its nearest neighbour, Cantick Head offers peace, tranquillity and of course the wonderful views across to the sea.

Cantick Head Photo Montage

The Lighthouse Tower is owned and remotely operated by Northern Lighthouse Board from Edinburgh. However, and the seller has been advised that if the Lighthouse Tower or the Engineer’s Workshop is decommissioned the landowners should be in the optimum position to gain ownership, as right of access to the buildings is restricted. PLEASE NOTE we have direct contact with the owner, and can make the appropriate introduction. Please contact us through the normal channels …

Unique Property Bulletin – Contact Page

Cantick Head Lighthouse Keepers’ Cottages are located on the renowned Island of Hoy. This beautiful island enjoys excellent links to Orkney via regular roll-on, roll-off ferry services, and to the mainland of the UK thereafter. Near to Cantick Head, the local village of Longhope is well served by a Health Centre and North Walls Community School together with a fitness centre, swimming pool, post office and licensed general store, two restaurants, three pubs and one theatre/cinema.

Lighthouse Cantick Head 2

Cantick Head Lighthouse Tower NOT included (c) 2013 Owner’s Collection

The Cantick Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottages have been restored and refurbished to a very high standard, the cottages provide the modern facilities and comforts associated with 21st century living while retaining many original Victorian features.

The cottages & outbuildings are Grade B Listed. Mains Services are connected, along with BT Telephone & Broadband. The lighthouse compound benefits from a private septic tank (lighthouse building buyers/owners know what a thorny issue this can sometimes be).

Location: Cantick Head Lighthouse Cottages, Longhope, Island of Hoy, Orkney, KW16 3PQ.

Tenure: Feuhold (Scottish Equivalent of Freehold).

Guide: “Offers Over”: £350,000 – for the WHOLE site [excluding Lighthouse Tower].

Contact: Unique Property Bulletin Direct

FOR SINGLE HOUSE PURCHASE…

Guide: Starting at: £110,000 – for a former Assistant Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage – choice of two.

Guide: £150,000 – for the former Principal Lighthouse Keeper’s House.

Contact: Cantick Head Ltd., via

Cantick Head Ltd – Contact Page

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At Unique Property Bulletin, we can, if there is a demand, recommend an appropriately experienced solicitor – so that in the example of the three building lighthouse compound at Cantick Head, a Syndicate of three people can have their solicitor co-ordinate a single offer for submission and consideration to the Owner. If such an offer was acceptable to the Seller, then each of the three separate house buildings would be distilled from the original combined lot, and after the “Entry Date” be owned 100% individually by each respective syndicate member [email Unique Property Bulletin direct for further details].

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Isle of Man Coastguard Station

Coastguard Station Douglas David Dixon

Former Douglas Coastguard Station (c) 2013 David Dixon

This is a seaside favourite of ours, and on an island. The former Coastguard Station at Douglas on the Isle of Man has been placed for sale. The building is detached with the all important location, location, location. Situated on the South Quay Road at the island’s capital, and main ferry port, this may make a very nice home – subject of course to planning permissions. In that respect it has the solution to a problem that is currently plaguing us just now – a mains connected W.C. This may seem an obscure point, but it is pivotal when a Change of Use application is submitted to the relevant authorities. More about our own unique property adventure soon. Back to the Douglas Coastguard Station.

The current layout has an entrance porch, office, open plan rest area, kitchenette, room for 2 to 3 cars and also, as mentioned a W.C. All in all approximately 656 square feet to play with.

PLEASE let us know if you buy this. We would love to hear the plans and story of the progress for this building which has had such an honourable reason for being.

Location: Coastguard Station, South Quay, Douglas, Isle Of Man, Isle Of Man, IM1 5AQ [postcode approximate]

Tenure: Freehold.

Guide: £95,000.

Contact Black Grace Cowley Agencies Tel: 01624 645556 – Please can you help the Unique Property Bulletin stay free to use by letting the estate agent know that you found their property on the Unique Property Bulletin website. Thankyou.

Online Brochure …….

Douglas Coastguard Station Brochure – PDF Format

Any problems downloading the PDF Format file, please just give the selling agents a phone call on 01624 645556 for an old fashioned paper set via the Royal Mail post.

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Competition – £100 Prize

Unique Property Bulletin Prize £100 Note Obverse

This nice, and very real £100 note is the Unique Property Bulletin prize if any reader can guess what the top property will be for our Bulletin edition on 28th July 2013? £100 note number A/2 545885.

Competition HintNot A Natural Nomad

Free to enter. Just email your guess of the unusual property we are featuring as the headline for 28th July 2013. We have never seen anything like it. Just email your competition entry of the structure we will be featuring first …

Unique Property Bulletin Competition Entry Contact Page

P.S. The £100 is valid in the whole of the UK, but if preferred, the prize can be posted out via a standard cheque. Though the current exchange rate is about £1.00 BoS to £0.94 BoE 😉

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES: MIDNIGHT 27 JULY 2013

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Canon Ball Foghorn House

Foghorn Price Update

Foghorn House – Isle of Anglesey (c) 2013 Jackson-Stops & Staff

Price Reduction. This wonderful home, featured in our Unique Property Bulletin …

http://uniquepropertybulletin.org/unique-property-bulletin-23-june-2013/

…. has now had the price reduced from £595,000 to £475,000 – Correct as at 21st July 2013. SAVE £120,000. Or dare we suggest a little haggle to see if a few canon balls lobbed in the right price direction may save a little more for the buyer.

Interested readers should contact the selling agency on 01244 296024 or 01244 328361. Online Brochure ….

http://www.jackson-stops.co.uk/cgi-bin/properties/summary-details.pl?propID=42716

North Stack Foghorn House, Holyhead Mountain, Anglesey, LL65 1YG.

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Quarry Man – Any Beatles ?

Quarry Man RSZ

The Quarry, Taunton, Somerset (c) 2013 Clive Emson

Firstly, this IS a candidate for our special featured property coming up at top spot in the Unique Property Bulletin next week 28th July 2013. Which, by the way, if you can guess what that unique house is, we have a £100 prize waiting for you.

Meantime where to put that special house? An example: Here we have a delightfully located area of land, part of which is a former small quarry, the whole site extending to circa 0.5 acres (0.2 hectares) being bounded by mature woodland and open countryside, enjoying vehicular access from the B3190.

Auctioneer’s Narrative: Interest is anticipated from home and land owners in the vicinity, as well as those from farther afield on the lookout for a rural haven, whether for pure amenity purposes or occasional recreational tenting and caravan holidays. As well as the general setting on the edge of the Exmoor National Park being a pleasing one, many will particularly appreciate the proximity (about a mile) of the southern reaches of the renowned Wimbleball Lake which offers some spectacular walks, watersports and angling opportunities.

Auctioneer’s Note: Please refer to the Auctioneers for details of the provision of services to the property.

Directions: The property will be found at the western end of the village of Upton lying to the southern side of the B3190 opposite Ivy Cottage just a few metres to the east of the Hansetown Road/Brompton Regis junction.

Location: The Quarry, Upton, Taunton, Somerset, TA4 2HU.

Tenure: Freehold.

Guide: £15,000Auction Lot 108 – Auction Date 26 July 2013.

Contact Clive Emson Auctioneers Tel: 0845 6013633 – Mr Graham Barton or Mr Scott Gray. Please can you help the Unique Property Bulletin stay FREE to use by letting the estate agent/owner/auction house know that you found their property on the Unique Property Bulletin website. Thankyou.

Online Brochure ……

http://www.cliveemson.co.uk/listing_view.asp?Lot=108&Auc=163

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Magnificent Modern Mansion

Mansion Cheshire 1

Grafton Hall, South Cheshire (c) 2013 Jackson-Stops & Staff

This would give Buckingham Palace a run for the money. On reading the estate agency detail, it would appear to be a major building project, having previously been put out for architectural competition…

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/england/grafton_hall.htm

Brave pills at the ready. Though there were some REALLY unique design entrants for the private client of this project….

Starfish

Star Fish New Era Mansion Design (c) 2013 Ushida Findlay Architects

An alternate entrant was the “Starfish Stately Home” and is really one of our favourites in this genre. Ushida Findlay have some very fine projects, and are not afraid to design cutting edge structures for the future. Well worth a look …..

http://www.ushida-findlay.com/

Back to the more traditional proposal for this stately home proposal.

Agency Narrative: A once in a lifetime opportunity to create architectural history – a stunning 180 acre Estate with planning consent for a Robert Adam designed mansion house in excess of 38,000 sq ft.

Mansion Cheshire 2

Grafton Hall, South Cheshire (c) 2013 Jackson-Stops & Staff

Proposed accommodation in brief: Grand hall, 6 magnificent reception rooms, family living kitchen, catering kitchen. Extensive basement. Master bedroom suite with entrance lobby, dual bathrooms, dressing rooms & balcony, 8 further bedrooms (all en suite, 6 with dressing rooms). First floor sitting room. Leisure wing set around an atrium courtyard comprising: – Swimming pool, Jacuzzi, steam room, gym, cinema, changing rooms, laundry. Separate staff quarters consisting of 2 independent apartments, each comprising: – Lounge/dining room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom. 8 car garaging with storage, WC/shower, games room. Stable block including 11 loose boxes, tack room, kitchen facilities, office. 18 acres of landscaped gardens, lake, traditional walled garden, tennis courts, encompassed by beautiful parkland. In all about 180 acres.

Approximately 25,664 sq ft (2,384 sq m)

Location: Grafton Hall, Tilston, Malpas, South Cheshire, SY14 7JE.

Tenure: Freehold.

Guide: £2,950,000.

Contact Jackson-Stops & Staff Agencies Tel: 01625 540340 – Please can you help the Unique Property Bulletin stay free to use by letting the estate agent know that you found their property on the Unique Property Bulletin website. Thankyou.

Online Brochure and ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS ….

http://www.jackson-stops.co.uk/cgi-bin/properties/summary-details.pl?propID=34897

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Beaky Bargain

Court Rossendale Robert Wade RSZ

Rawtenstall Magistrates’ Court Lancashire (c) 2013 Mr Robert Wade

What would an issue of Unique Property Bulletin be without one of our favourites? An FTSAA = Failed To Sell At Auction.

This building has housed – with respect – many beaks. Well this might be a bargain for some of our beakiest readers. Guided at £150,000 for auction on 18th July 2013, the Old Court failed to sell. A week later and the auctioneers have a revised “available” tag at £135,000. How much could that sentence be reduced to – on account of good behaviour? £125,000? £115,000? Positively a steal at under £99,000 🙂 If you bought at that price and you would find yourself in the Dock for nicking the thing. Sorry got carried away there. Lock him up for torturing puns.

Auctioneers Summary: The property fronts on to Oakley Road which is accessed from Haslingden Road (A681). Rawstenstall town centre is approximately 200 metres to the north west. Blackburn is about 10 miles to the north west. The A56 a reasonable 600m from the property – a road which links directly to the M66 motorway.

Description: Mid terraced two storey former court building representing a development opportunity subject to gaining the necessary consents and offered with vacant possession. The accommodation consists of a former Magistrates Court. Including Ground Floor, First Floor, and Basement Levels. Approximately 6,135 sq. ft (570 sq.m).

Location: Rawtenstall Magistrates’ Court, Oakley Road, Rawstenstall, Rossendale, Lancashire, BB4 6RB.

Tenure: Freehold.

Current Guide: Reduced From £150,000 to £135,000 – Auction Lot 45 – FAILED TO SELL AT AUCTION – Now AVAILABLE for a POST-AUCTION SALE. Original Auction Date 18 July 2013.

Contact Roy Pugh Auctioneers Tel: 0844 2 722444Please can you help the Unique Property Bulletin stay FREE to use by letting the estate agent/owner/auction house know that you found their property on the Unique Property Bulletin website. Thankyou.

Online Brochure ….

http://www.pugh-auctions.com/Lot/Manchester/20130718/045

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Architecturally Unique

Modern House 1

Richard’s House (c) 2013 Tim Crocker / The Modern House

This unique architecture element is likely to be a permanent and additional inclusion within each week’s Unique Property Bulletin as we have had a decent amount of positive feedback. It is also an absolute pleasure looking at a slightly different aspect of unusual property. The architecturally unique has opened a whole new box of goodies for us – all – to explore. Thankyou to the kind reader who suggested adding this genre.

This week we have a unique designe – by the architects Richard and Su Rogers from 1968. This one of the most important and celebrated houses of the 20th century. It has been described by Richard Rogers – who went on to design projects including the Pompidou Centre in Paris, Lloyds of London and Heathrow’s Terminal 5 – as “the most successful small project I have been involved in”. The house sits centrally on an outstanding garden plot opposite Wimbledon Common. The site is very secluded and private, yet just a short walk from the centre of Wimbledon Village.

Modern House 2

Inside Looking Out (c) 2013 The Modern House

Originally designed for the parents of Richard Rogers, the property is still owned by the family and is on the market for the first time. It is one of a very small number of modern houses that have been given a Grade II* listing by English Heritage and is one of very few British houses that stands comparison with the finest twentieth-century houses in America and mainland Europe. Although the design is rooted in the classic Modern style established by the likes of Mies van der Rohe and Richard Neutra, in terms of its construction it represents a radical departure from what had come before.

Very little can be seen from the road besides a screen of bamboo, a discreet area for off-street parking and a door into the first building on the plot. This was originally a pottery studio and guest accommodation and is currently used as an office space. This building, a smaller version of the main house with its striking yellow steel frame, could easily be used for residential purposes. Internally it consists of two open-plan spaces composed around a central utility unit housing a kitchen and bathroom.

Modern House 3

A Nice Touch – Unique Garden Elements (c) 2013 The Modern House

Location: Richard’s House, Parkside, Wimbledon, London, SW19 5NX [exact postcode approximate]

Tenure: Freehold.

Guide: £3,200,000. Sorry but that’s what it costs to live in a world renowned capital city, and in a premier architect designed house to top things off !

Contact The Modern House Agencies Tel: 020 7704 3504 – Please can you help the Unique Property Bulletin stay free to use by letting the estate agent know that you found their property on the Unique Property Bulletin website. Thankyou.

Online Brochure ……

http://www.themodernhouse.net/sales-list/rogers-house-london-sw19/description-817/

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and finally …..

Try Before You Buy

Huf Haus Burton Bradstock

The Beach Haus, Burton Bradstock, Dorset (c) 2013 Unique Home Stays

Viewers of the Grand Design series may have seen the building of a Huf Haus …

Channel 4 – Grand Designs – Huf Haus Project

Here in Dorset, Unique Home Stays [no relation to Unique Property Bulletin] has a fine holiday destination for one of these iconic structures. This example of the amazing Huf Haus design is available for holidays rental. Unique Home Stays have put together a very full selection of photographs for folk considering a stay …

Unique Home Stays – Huf Haus Holiday Photo Selection

also some video at …

Youtube Video – Huf Haus

The Huf Haus design homes are built at …

Huf Haus Website

This is such a logistically brilliant way of building an amazing home that there is a dedicated group of Huf Haus owners. If this genre of build captures your attention there is plenty to read about …

Huf Haus Owners Group

Plus of course the ultimate holiday to experience – at first hand by renting one of these wonderful styles of building. For further detail please contact …

Unique Home Stays – Tel 01637 881942

www.uniquehomestays.com

When enquiring, please can you help the Unique Property Bulletin stay free to use by letting the estate agent know that you found their property on the Unique Property Bulletin website. Thankyou.

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Try Before You Buy should be a firm principle for anyone looking to live in an unusual type of home. From first hand experience we saw a couple very keen on moving to an island, but it wasn’t the ideal home that they had hoped for. So whenever we can we recommend folk try before they buy. What better way than spending a weekend, a couple of weeks or even a couple of months – at a unique home to see if it suits? Ideally spend a short while in the middle of summer, then the same in the middle of winter. That way you can see for real, whether your choice is right for you, and your style of life fits in with it.

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Previously on Unique Property Bulletin …

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