Rural home investment is also getting cheaper amid the UK price slump, a leading consultancy has said.
Prices in the prime British country house market slipped by four per cent in the third quarter of 2008, Knight Frank said.
The company also noted the most expensive properties have seen the smallest falls and added there were some striking regional differences.
Northern areas are producing more resilient prices than southern locations, the property and finance experts said.
Knight Frank head of rural property research Andrew Shirley said:
“Prime country houses are now worth, on average, 7.9 per cent less than a year ago, bringing them broadly in line with the general housing market for the first time.
“Vendors were slower to cut guide prices in this sector of the market, hoping the credit crunch would not affect them. But they have now realised they are not immune to the downturn and are agreeing to lower their expectations.”
Knight Frank also said other signs suggested other parts of the housing market were heading downwards on what it called the first birthday of the credit crunch.
Analysts at the firm added manor houses had so far fallen around five per cent in price, compared to an 11 per cent drop for cottages.
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