A striking Grade II-listed Georgian house in the heart of Saffron Walden is up for sale.
The building, part of Walden Place in Myddylton Place, is on the market with property agents Savills on behalf of Uttlesford District Council with a guide price of £1 million.
The four-storey house was previously used for sheltered accommodation for the over 60s before tenants moved to a new adjoining building.
Uttlesford District Council recently completed a project to separate the main building from the current sheltered housing flats.
Toby Greenhow, head of new homes for Savills in Cambridge and who leads the new homes teams across the Northern Home Counties, said: “The desire and appetite for new build homes is strong. Buyers do remain sensitive to mortgage rates and pricing, but the flurry of activity since the start of the year demonstrates the depth of pent-up demand that could be released when the cost of debt eases.
“The pace and scale of interest rate cuts is therefore likely to have a more significant impact on the market than the timing or outcome of the General Election, not least because of the short odds on a change in Government.
“With most of the uncertainty behind us we expect buyer demand to continue to gain traction over the autumn. However with housing delivery forecast to fall to its lowest level for a decade, questions are being asked as to whether the new homes market will be ready for the recovery.
“There are parts of the East of England where the pipeline of new homes is relatively stable – large areas of Suffolk and mid Norfolk for example, along with some parts of Essex and Cambridgeshire. But equally there are pockets – Cambridge city, north Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire – where there is quite a significant shortfall and the pipeline is shrinking.
“The metrics point toward a shortage of homes, particularly houses, and a lack of competition in a couple of years’ time, just as the housing market is returning to growth. Developers with planning consent should therefore push on with their sites in order to be in a prime position to meet rising buyer demand as mortgage rates reduce to a more affordable threshold.”
Savills suggests the house, totalling 7,890 sq ft could, subject to planning, be suitable as a hotel, apartments or an individual house.
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