SPARE a thought for the wealthy: being rich costs an absolute fortune. According to an authoritative new study, running a Scottish country mansion for a year involves amounts of cash most of us would consider a dream salary.
Staff wages, heating and lighting bills, and maintaining status symbols such as a swimming pool, electric gates and acres of lawn typically set the owner back £100,000 a year.
The figures have been calculated by an estate agency, which says sales
of small country estates are booming north of the Border. But Knight Frank is concerned that some buyers with enough money to buy a £2m-plus property may struggle to pay the annual running costs.
Employing staff will leave little change out of £50,000, while the latest garden design and plants will empty another £5,000 from your pockets. Filling the swimming pool is relatively cheap, but heating and maintaining it is likely to relieve you of a further £5,000.
Keeping the riff-raff out will also lighten your wallet. The cost of electric gates, CCTV cameras and alarms amount to around £4,000. Around 30-50 estates, ranging from 30 acres to tens of thousands, come on to the market each year. Philip Eddell, a country homes specialist with Knight Frank, said: "This end of the market is very strong as there are many people who have made money in the UK and are doing very well, as well as a great deal of international money.
"But running a country house can cost anything from £50,000 to £500,000. For a manor house of around 10,000sq ft, with seven or eight bedrooms, we would expect the annual running costs to be between £70,000 and £100,000 a year, assuming it has been refurbished and is in good repair. But if staffing levels exceed one full time housekeeper and gardener, running costs can increase dramatically."
He added: "Elaborate security arrangements can also inflate costs, as can leisure facilities such as swimming pools. We have advised on houses where running costs have exceeded £1m a year."
One problem, said Eddell, was that houses with grounds of around 20 to 30 acres, were, unlike larger estates, unlikely to produce an income in their own right: "You are likely to have to be earning a lot of money to afford to run it. It is a barometer of how well people are doing in this country that more seem to be able to do it."
John Coleman, Knight Frank's residential sales expert in Scotland, said: "It's often said that paying for the house is the easy bit. But if you spend £2m, you actually need £4m to generate enough income to keep on owning it."
Owning a country estate is still a status symbol, and as popular among Britain's nouveau riche and wealthy foreigners as among the aristocracy. In Scotland, Harry Potter author JK Rowling and Stagecoach entrepreneur Ann Gloag have both spent part of their newfound wealth on Perthshire mansions.
Russian billionaire Vladimir Lisin bought Aberuchill Castle near Crieff for £6.8m in 2005. Seton Castle, in East Lothian, has just been bought by two internet entrepreneurs from Edinburgh. Stephen Leach and his wife Heather Luscombe, who founded Leith-based bigmouthmedia, reportedly paid the asking price of £5m after selling their company for £50m. But, say estate agents, the market in small country estates in Scotland with about 30 acres of land is also booming as the number of British millionaires increases thanks to high City salaries and internet sell-offs.
Jamie MacNab, a country homes specialist with Savills, in Edinburgh, agreed labour was usually the biggest unforeseen cost. "In my experience, unless the buyers have owned a country house, they always underestimate the costs of running it," he said.
"If you have about 20 acres, by the time you have appointed a gardener and equipped him, you will have run through £30,000 to £40,000. Then there's the cost of help around the house on top.
"Then, with that sort of property, you will probably want a horse for the children and I'm reliably informed they eat money as well as grass. You are going to have to either work hard to pay for everything or already be very wealthy."
Caroline Mclachlan, who lives in Newliston House, in Kirkliston, near Edinburgh, with her family, knows the difficulties of running a large country home.
She said: "When something goes wrong it is a bigger cost than an ordinary house. Stonework repairs and dry rot can be hugely expensive. Heating is a huge aspect. We try to renovate the house a bit at a time. Providing there are fewer than 12 buckets in the attic, I am happy. Insurance is expensive because we are a listed building, so it must be like-for-like materials."
The demand for luxury country homes in Scotland shows no sign of abating. Last month, Gleneagles, the five-star resort in Perthshire, put 14 plots of land in its grounds up for sale for prices ranging from £850,000 to more than £1m. So far 11 have been sold, even though buyers will have to have their own palatial homes constructed. Agents believe many will be valued around £3m.
"Many people want off-the-shelf houses built to the latest standards because it cuts down on maintenance costs," said Alastair Holden of selling agents Rettie and Co. "I showed some people around a Victorian house recently but they were reluctant to buy because it was so costly to run."
