BECKHAM
28-06-2013, 02:54 PM
The fallen oligarch Boris Beresovsky died there, the former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet was once holed up there while trying to evade extradition. It is home to motor racing millionaire Eddie Jordan, TV celebrities such as Sir Bruce Forsyth and more international golf stars than you can shake a five-iron at.
Welcome to Virginia Water, a leafy little town complete with a traditional red phone box, on the borders of Surrey and Berkshire, and the first and so far only town in the country with an average house price of more than £1m.
Fancy a place in this most upmarket Surrey address, which was named after the local lake that honours the "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth I? Well, you'll need an average of £1.03m - nearly £200,000 more than an average abode in Cobham, the UK's second most expensive town, also in Surrey, and a favourite residence for footballers.
Virginia Water's position at the top of the UK's house price league is revealed in a new Property Rich List compiled by property website Zoopla. The survey shows that entire postcodes within London now have average prices running into the millions.
The most expensive street is Kensington Palace Gardens, dubbed the "boulevard of billionaires", which boasts an average price of £36.1m, while in The Boltons, located in the Brompton district of Kensington and Chelsea, and formerly home to Madonna, the average is £23.4m.
Over the past year, a typical property in the chichi W8 postcode of west London has jumped in value by more than £100,000 – or around four times average annual earnings.
The survey, published on Friday, reveals that the number of million-pound homes in the UK has soared by nearly a third to more than 320,000 over the past year. The number of streets where the average house price is now more than £1m has climbed 23% to 8,230 over the same period.
In truth, not even £1m will go far on Virginia Water's Wentworth estate, a series of private streets with its own security guards and dogs built around the world-famous golf club where 18 holes will set you back £360.
On the doorstep of bucolic Windsor Great Park, Wentworth boasts 700 high-end homes scattered around three world-class golf courses. This is where Forsyth and Jordan hang their hats. At Wentworth, prices start at £2m, but marble mansions with swimming pools fetch much more. "You can get some seriously expensive houses," says John Henson, an associate at Knight Frank estate agents. "It is private, it is leafy, it is green, it is well-cared for."
Virginia Water is at the centre of a type of England reminiscent of an Evelyn Waugh novel – close to elite private schools, such as Eton, and Heathfield for girls, as well as the Ascot racecourse and a polo club.
These aristocratic trappings have proved a huge draw for foreign buyers. Most high-level properties at Wentworth are snapped up by foreigners looking for a weekend home, says Henson, with buyers hailing from Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, China and the Middle East.
Many of these buyers are demolishing the mock Tudor houses put up by Surrey master builder Walter George Tarrant in the 1930s, which charmed an earlier generation of stockbrokers. Lattice windows and sloping rooms with chimneys are making way for marble palaces boasting cinemas, gyms and three-car garages.
"Our foreign buyers really like brand new," says Henson. "Anything that is a little bit old is a bit harder to sell than something fresh out of the ground."
While there may be Porsches and plenty of BMWs in the local car park, Virginia Water's sleepy high street does not scream ostentation. With a Blockbuster video and a Budgens convenience store, there is little sign of the incredible fortunes that exist around the corner.
That may be because the most wealthy residents rarely shop on the high street. Charlotte Kennedy, 21, who helps to run the family bakery, says more business comes from builders and landscape gardeners working at Wentworth than from its residents.
"We don't tend to see a lot of them. They are only here for something like eight weeks a year," she says. "When they are here we might be asked to deliver fresh bread and things like that but apart from that we don't get much from them."
The draw for all locals is the peace and quiet, with one businesswoman objecting to the Zoopla survey's designation of Virginia Water as a "town". "People like the fact that it is still a village and that keeps it small and quiet."
The prosperous town sees little crime. "There have been people who have had some incidents with animals going missing," says Declan Hester, who works in the video shop. And he can recall a case last summer when two men got in a fight outside his store. "The blokes had just had too much to drink," he says. "I don't think the people actually lived here."
Welcome to Virginia Water, a leafy little town complete with a traditional red phone box, on the borders of Surrey and Berkshire, and the first and so far only town in the country with an average house price of more than £1m.
Fancy a place in this most upmarket Surrey address, which was named after the local lake that honours the "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth I? Well, you'll need an average of £1.03m - nearly £200,000 more than an average abode in Cobham, the UK's second most expensive town, also in Surrey, and a favourite residence for footballers.
Virginia Water's position at the top of the UK's house price league is revealed in a new Property Rich List compiled by property website Zoopla. The survey shows that entire postcodes within London now have average prices running into the millions.
The most expensive street is Kensington Palace Gardens, dubbed the "boulevard of billionaires", which boasts an average price of £36.1m, while in The Boltons, located in the Brompton district of Kensington and Chelsea, and formerly home to Madonna, the average is £23.4m.
Over the past year, a typical property in the chichi W8 postcode of west London has jumped in value by more than £100,000 – or around four times average annual earnings.
The survey, published on Friday, reveals that the number of million-pound homes in the UK has soared by nearly a third to more than 320,000 over the past year. The number of streets where the average house price is now more than £1m has climbed 23% to 8,230 over the same period.
In truth, not even £1m will go far on Virginia Water's Wentworth estate, a series of private streets with its own security guards and dogs built around the world-famous golf club where 18 holes will set you back £360.
On the doorstep of bucolic Windsor Great Park, Wentworth boasts 700 high-end homes scattered around three world-class golf courses. This is where Forsyth and Jordan hang their hats. At Wentworth, prices start at £2m, but marble mansions with swimming pools fetch much more. "You can get some seriously expensive houses," says John Henson, an associate at Knight Frank estate agents. "It is private, it is leafy, it is green, it is well-cared for."
Virginia Water is at the centre of a type of England reminiscent of an Evelyn Waugh novel – close to elite private schools, such as Eton, and Heathfield for girls, as well as the Ascot racecourse and a polo club.
These aristocratic trappings have proved a huge draw for foreign buyers. Most high-level properties at Wentworth are snapped up by foreigners looking for a weekend home, says Henson, with buyers hailing from Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, China and the Middle East.
Many of these buyers are demolishing the mock Tudor houses put up by Surrey master builder Walter George Tarrant in the 1930s, which charmed an earlier generation of stockbrokers. Lattice windows and sloping rooms with chimneys are making way for marble palaces boasting cinemas, gyms and three-car garages.
"Our foreign buyers really like brand new," says Henson. "Anything that is a little bit old is a bit harder to sell than something fresh out of the ground."
While there may be Porsches and plenty of BMWs in the local car park, Virginia Water's sleepy high street does not scream ostentation. With a Blockbuster video and a Budgens convenience store, there is little sign of the incredible fortunes that exist around the corner.
That may be because the most wealthy residents rarely shop on the high street. Charlotte Kennedy, 21, who helps to run the family bakery, says more business comes from builders and landscape gardeners working at Wentworth than from its residents.
"We don't tend to see a lot of them. They are only here for something like eight weeks a year," she says. "When they are here we might be asked to deliver fresh bread and things like that but apart from that we don't get much from them."
The draw for all locals is the peace and quiet, with one businesswoman objecting to the Zoopla survey's designation of Virginia Water as a "town". "People like the fact that it is still a village and that keeps it small and quiet."
The prosperous town sees little crime. "There have been people who have had some incidents with animals going missing," says Declan Hester, who works in the video shop. And he can recall a case last summer when two men got in a fight outside his store. "The blokes had just had too much to drink," he says. "I don't think the people actually lived here."