PERIOD rural homes and traditional country cottages are defying the gloom affecting other parts of the residential property market, according to Simon Backhouse of estate agents Strutt & Parker.

The latest sector-by-sector analysis of the firm’s sales figures show prices of desirable period homes have risen by 8-9 per cent in 2007. But it’s what’s been happening in the last quarter of the year that has really caught the attention of the Canterbury office.

Values for these aspirational period properties have risen by nearly 10 per cent in 2007, a slight slowdown on the last two years but is still an impressive rate of increase.

What's been happening in the last two or three months, since the so-called "sub-prime" crisis hit the world’s financial markets, has really surprised us because values simply haven’t moved. Asking prices may not be going up any more but the market for this type of period house is still very firm.

The sorts of properties that are continuing to sell very well are what are traditionally described as "smart country houses" like the old Victorian rectory with a huge garden, the Queen Anne farmhouse with stables and a couple of paddocks or the fine Georgian house on the edge of the village, although the type of period property obviously varies as you move around the country.

For example, Dane Chantry, a Grade II listed timber-framed manor house, sympathetically modernised to a high specification, in a secluded rural location, is on the market at a guide price of £1.85million.

But one thing which doesn’t change wherever you are in the country is the relative scarcity of these properties. It’s shortage that is underpinning values and should continue to do so as we move into 2008.

This is partly because they’re simply not making these sorts of properties any more – because they can’t. The fact that they are a couple of hundred years old is central to their appeal.

The second factor influencing supply is that people are owning these houses for longer than they used to, so they are not coming up for sale as often.

These houses used to be bought by wealthy people in their late 40s or early 50s. But for the last five to 10 years, people have been making their money earlier and buying these houses while they’re still in their mid-to-late 30s.

So far, there's no sign of many of them selling but, then, why should there be – these are the sort of houses where families are raised, maybe over a period of 20-25 years.

The third factor affecting supply is the only short-term one – uncertainty. Demand for sought-after period properties will still be good in 2008 but I’m not expecting to see much increase in values. It is therefore imperative that vendors put their property on the market at the right price.

For information contact Strutt & Parker’s Country House Sales on 01227 451123.