Househunter Sampford Spiney, Dartmoor

Househunter Sampford Spiney, Dartmoor

You can ride straight out on to the moor from the Old National School in the hamlet of Sampford Spiney, Devon. The granite cottage started life as a church house 400 years ago, before becoming a school and then a home in the Seventies. It has two large living-rooms, two bathrooms, two bedrooms and a galleried study. A gate from the garden leads out on to Dartmoor. Strutt & Parker in Exeter (01392 215613) is asking pounds 150,000.

For what it's worth

These two sets of figures give a graphic description of the change in the property market over the past year. In each case more than 120 estate agents across the country belonging to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors were asked what had happened to prices over the previous three months. One in three agents says prices are falling now, compared with just one in 12 last year. Many are demanding government action to prevent prices and confidence slipping further, as the market prepares for its traditional August shut-down. They report that sales are either falling through or are painfully slow to complete. Only the rental market is buoyant.

June 1994

Prices up 19 per cent

Prices stable 73 per cent

Prices down 8 per cent

June 1995

Prices up 4.8 per cent

Prices stable 61.7 per cent

Prices down 33.5 per cent

Who's moving

Crystal Palace Football Club has bought Rooks Next Park in Godstone, Surrey, for pounds 1.3m. Savills, the joint selling agents, says the club plans to set up a soccer school on the premises. As well as the building and grounds, it has acquired permission to use its former name, Streete Court School. An auction of old school equipment, which is to be held in September, will include AA Milne's lunch box.