The rural farmhouse market has a resilience that shows it is has been unaffected by the reported downturn in some sectors.

Almost 78 per cent of the 18 Carter Jonas offices in the UK handling such properties reported that values had remained static, although the range of values still shows massive variance across the country from £900,000 close to Huddersfield to £2.5 million near Andover.

The figures are revealed in the autumn 2010 Carter Jonas Farmhouse Index, which illustrates the valuation of a typical farmhouse across the firm’s national network of residential offices on a quarterly basis.

The notional house is in good order and totals 4,200 sq ft, comprising five bedrooms, a three bay garage, five stables, a range of domestic outbuildings, and all set in about five acres (2.02 hectares).

The farmhouse has been valued as if it is located within a five mile radius of each of Carter Jonas’s offices in a prime village location and has no immediate development angle.

In terms of value growth, Newbury registered a slight increase in the third quarter of the year, with the figure rising 4.4 per cent to £2.35 million.

This increase is in spite of a slower pace of activity although the market has been buoyed with a real shortage of good quality stock, which continues to remain in high demand.

The registration by 14 offices of no change in valuation over the three months to the end of September reinforces the resilience of farmhouses in comparison to the wider housing market.

Just three offices reported a decline in values compared to Q2 (six per cent). Basingstoke witnessed the sharpest decline of 11 per cent to a value of £2m, primarily due to an increase in the supply of stock coming to the market. Chippenham and Kendal saw an eight per cent and seven per cent reduction in price to £1.15m and £1.35m respectively despite the geographical desirability of their locations close to Regency Bath and the Cotswolds in the case of Chippenham and the Lake District for Kendal.

Catherine Penman, head of research at Carter Jonas, who compiled the index, commented: "We are expecting to see an increase in the number of farmhouses coming to the market throughout the remainder of 2010 and into early next year. For some purchasers, this may mean the opportunity to negotiate favourable terms."

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