The Inside Edge
How much did Sarah Beeny pay for Rise Hall?
Everyone keeps asking me if I’ve seen Sarah Beeny’s new TV show, Sarah Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare, which I mentioned in the blog last week. This tell me two things, 1. its very popular and 2. not many of my friends read my business blog.
Since the last piece we’ve received a deluge of enquires asking ‘How much did Sarah Beeny pay for rise Hall’? Usually I refer to the brilliant houseprices.co.uk which instantly tells you the sold price of any house in the UK – from the year 2000 onwards. And here lieth the problem – Rise Hall was bought in March 2001 but its sold price is not freely available online.
So to answer the question we went to the the Land Register (www.landregistry.co.uk) where all property trancsactions are formally registered and recorded. Records are available to the public (at a charge) and nowadays you can view them online (in the past you had to either go to London or order copies in writing).
So to satisfy your collective curiousity we paid £4 to get a copy of the registration documents of Rise Hall and can reveal that Sarah Beeny’s husband, Graham Swift paid £441,101 for Rise Hall on 16th February 2001 and it is registered solely in his name.
If you want your very own Rise Hall – see what £441,101 would buy you today, which according to www.whatsthecost.com would be worth £529,294.18 today taking inflation into account.
Searching for Houses for Sale under £525,000 in Yorkshire on The Big Property List does leave us just over four thousand pounds to spend on any renovations but unfortunately doesn’t offer you much as grand as Rise Hall, but certainly more modern run of the mill dwellings such as a ‘A well presented and extended four bedroom detached family home offering superb living accommodation and located in this highly sought after South side location.This delightful family home is presented in tasteful decorative order throughout.’
Hmmm, not quite the 97 room pile I was looking for thanks.
The after show ‘live chat’ on the Guardian website revealed mixed feelings from viewers, with many viewers and ex-pupils of Rise Hall saying how thrilled there were to see the place being restored. Others showed an impatience with the show and Ms Beeny at a time when many in the housing market are suffering.
One commenter asked:
‘How does it feel to have contributed so much to the madness of the constipated UK property market by producing endless TV shows that encourage people to become obsessed with the whole thing and are you making this new show now only because the arse has fallen out of the same market and no one can actually buy a decent house to live in anymore – without a TV presenter salary?’
Well, Dimbleby wouldn’t let ’em ask questions like that on question time would he!
Many comments have been deleted by editors and there is no record of Sarah’s responses to the Live chat questions. Either way I enjoyed the programme more than I thought I might and if I happen to be sitting down whilst it’s on this week I will probably watch it.
Catch Sarah Beeny’s Restoration nightmare on channel 4 at 8pm on Thursday.
Interesting. – and well done for digging out the info. Wonder how much they spent renovating?!
Amazing house, and potentially fascinating programme, but found last one a bit disappointing. Having been shown how rotten every wall and window etc was in the first in the series, Sarah B spent the next one choosing paint colours and playing with the kids while the clock, apparently, ticked. Why would they edit out the structural work? Or is it just me who would find the gutting and guttering more interesting than endless shots of painters on scaffolding?
The hall was on teh market unrenovated around 3 years ago for…….over 6 million!!!
I think it is wonderful what Sarah and Graham have achieved at Rise Hall I love to watch them restoring it they are so in tune with each other, with four young sons to look after and all they have had to contend with they are an inspiration. Good Luck for the future
The TV program has just aired in Australia on ABC TV. The original purchase price was mentioned, I though “over 350,000 pounds,” but how much they spent on the renovations is not mentioned or even hinted at. The annoying part of the program was being repeatedly told what they were trying to do.
Never ceases to amaze me the problems the poms have trying to salvage old property. If it wasnt for people like sarah and graham these properties would be lost. Why do ths councils make it so difficult, they should be eternally grateful that someone wants to take these on.
thanks to you both youve done a great job.