Government plans could cut a third or more off thousands of house prices – Telegraph Blogs

Government plans could cut a third or more off thousands of house prices – Telegraph Blogs

Thousands of house prices could fall by a third or more if Coalition Government proposals to change planning rules in favour of developers become law, knocking hundreds of thousands of pounds off some of the most desirable homes in the green belt.

Many estate agents are reluctant to discuss this potential domestic disaster because they are linked to building and development companies who stand to gain if given a free hand to brick over the fields and meadows that make England such a green and pleasant land.

But David Pardoe, a director of Chesterton Humberts’ rural division in Salisbury, was among those willing to speak out. He told me: “It is the larger and higher value country houses that will suffer the most if developers are given the go ahead to build in green belt and other protected areas, as it could jeopardize three of the factors by which a country house is valued; its privacy levels, the views it has, and its proximity to other properties.