Rich Pickings: Agency sells £100m of homes on one estate in 2021

Knight Frank has sold homes collectively valued at over £100m on just one exclusive estate so far this year alone. 

The Wentworth Estate is a private area of 1,750 acres, first set up in the 1920s and a playground for wealthy Britons of a certain type - current owners are reported to include the Sultan of Brunei, Landy Wuinella Forsyth-Johnson (widow of Bruce Forsyth), and ex-Formula 1 team owners Ron Dennis and Eddie Jordan.

It is perhaps most infamous for being the estate on which former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was holed up prior to his extradition.

The properties recently sold by Knight Frank include a stucco fronted property agreed after competitive bidding above the guide price of £12.995m, and Villa Oman, a property that never hit the open market, also sold after competitive bidding with a guide price of £25m. 

The agency sold over £46m of property on The Wentworth Estate within the month of August alone, bringing the total sales figure in 2021 so far to over £100m.

Stuart Cole, a partner in Knight Frank’s country department, says: “With the ease of travel restrictions and return of the international buyer into the UK property market, super-prime property has experienced a significant increase in demand. After an extremely busy August, demand is presently outstripping supply, making it a fantastic time to list a property on The Wentworth Estate.”

Knight Frank has a long-standing link with the estate - in 1921 the old Knight Frank & Rutley agency sold the entire estate at auction.