Launch of Estates & Special Projects.
Our country property buying team – headed up by Ben Horne – comprises acknowledged experts in all of the prime areas of southern England.
That stability and recognition has enabled Middleton co-founder Tom Hudson to focus on broadening Estates & Special Projects services, particularly for our ‘legacy’ clients.
Tom explains: “Legacy clients are the families and individuals we’ve worked for in the past, and whose property needs become more complex over time. In the last 12 months, I’ve advised on a range of complex projects including acquisition work in Europe, enlarging a country estate, as well as providing a strategic plan going forward, and appointing selling agents to work with me on some significant disposals.”
Tom works closely with Will Langmead, who joined Middleton in 2021 and is a specialist in farms and estates.
“One of the subjects that we regularly advise legacy clients on is ‘acreage value’. Too much advice that I see bandied about is formulaic,” says Will. “There are so many variables to consider. A single acre might be worth the same as 50 elsewhere, but people can focus a little too much on geographical location, when it is as much to do with land-quality. And so every requirement – large or small – needs a very bespoke valuation, not just for the acquisition, but in terms of what might be the ongoing costs of land management and revenue opportunities.”