51乱伦

Last week, I found myself debating with a colleague about whether planting a vineyard near a residential property enhances the value of the holding. The argument in favour was as you would expect. You are transforming a bare field into a productive vineyard capable of producing wines that may garner regional or national notoriety under a wine estate brand, which may also have an intangible value.  

The argument against it was that a house with a vineyard falls between two distinct markets. Most people looking for a home in the countryside do not necessarily want a vineyard. If they come across a house with a vineyard, it will be an initial curiosity and seem charming, but it will perplex them when they learn about the work required to produce quality fruit in a maritime climate. Invariably, these buyers drop out at that point. 

Ed Mansel Lewis, Partner and Head of Viticulture

The other market is wine producers looking to increase their acreage under vine. From their perspective, the vineyard will be interesting, but it is the house that's the problem. They could put a tenant in the property, but when you deduct insurance and maintenance costs, it becomes an underperforming investment, and then these buyers also tend to drop out. 

Selling homes with boutique wine businesses

That leaves buyers retiring from the city with their families to take on a boutique-sized wine business after a short vineyard management course. The number of buyers in this market is much smaller than the markets for country house buyers or wine producers, so the opportunity to create competitive bidding is materially reduced. 

Furthermore, these buyers will likely want to buy with a mixture of equity and debt. The problem here is that very few high street banks lend against the value of wine in store or the intangible value of the wine brand, so their mortgage valuation will be for the land and property assets only. This means the buyers will need to find the funds to pay for the wine stock and brand value with whatever residual cash they have left.

I have seen several excellent buyers drop out because there was too much friction trying to secure capital from the bank to take on the vineyard and wine business. 

Future-proofing your wine estate

At this point in the debate, we had, at least, managed to identify the question: 'How do you maximise the capital value of your wine estate if selling is a potential exit strategy for you?'

We realised that the solution was to ensure that the vineyard and farm buildings were positioned far enough away from the house and with their own access to be lotted separately if the wine estate was ever sold. This way, the house and garden can be sold into the country house market and the vineyard and buildings into the vineyard market. Then, if there are lifestyle buyers in the market, they still have the option of buying both lots.

With over 890 planted vineyards in the country, I'm conscious that this advice may seem a little late for some. There are still a few key ways to future-proof an exit strategy if that is an option at some stage.

Chapel Down Vineyard in Tenterden, Kent

6 expert tips on designing vineyards to boost your property's value

1. Secure consent for a separate access off the highway into the vineyard away from the house if there is not one currently 

2. Build any future vineyard structures out of sight of the residence

3. Ensure that the car park for visitors doing vineyard tours is away from the house

4. If you expand the vineyard, plant the vines in fields further away from the house, not closer 

5. Plant woodland screens between the house and any 'back office' views of the vineyard, such as the tractor shed, customer car park or spray filling point

6. Don't run a cellar door from your own home. If you're short on capital, be savvy and put in a mezzanine above your tractor shed with a big window overlooking the vines

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