News and Press releases

The new let set

07/02/2010

Letting a grand house may sound like something from a Jane Austen novel, but an increasing number of house movers are choosing to let before they buy, say estate agents.

For homeowners who want to move on, letting, rather than selling is also more popular at the moment. The motivation for letting is not always simply that would-be sellers cannot find buyers.

In different circumstances, Dan Brown concedes, he would probably not be letting his home — but he does not want to sell. “We bought this house two years ago when we moved to Scotland from London,” he says.
“I am from Dunfermline, and my wife and I wanted our daughter to grow up in Scotland. The freedom and the surroundings are so much better for children, we thought.”
Brown, an actor, has played roles in Taggart, The Bill and EastEnders and the ITV drama, The Knock. He wanted to live south of the Forth, so as to be near Edinburgh airport. He viewed his present home, in East Bay, near North Queensferry, and was persuaded to accept being slightly further from take-off than he had planned.
The house stands on a tiny promontory, almost beneath the Forth Bridge and near Deep Sea World. Built about eight years ago, it is the largest of an exclusive development of houses in one of the most striking locations in Britain.
“The house is stunning. Every room has a sea view, and we have a sizeable stretch of private beach,” says Brown. “In the garden there is a second world war gun turret, as well as an ante-chamber where, I think, snipers protected the gun turret halfway up the cliff behind us.”
Brown and his wife remain committed to a life by the ocean waves, but they want to buy a boutique hotel in Goa, India, and have bought a two-bedroomed house in North Queensferry, to which they plan to move once they have found a tenant.
They will then save the rent collected on their East Bay home for a couple of years until they have enough to carry out their dream. Their intention is to spend their winters helping guests enjoy the fabled beaches on the Arabian sea, and their summers sitting beside their own beach in Fife.
“Against a different economic backdrop, we might just have increased our mortgage to buy somewhere in India,’ says Brown. Instead, he is hoping to find somebody who is willing to pay £2,500 a month for a few seasons in his spectacular home.
DJ Alexander is the agent for Dan Brown’s house, 0131 558 3000.

THE SUNDAY TIMES, 7 February 2010

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