To think this house is too remote to be feasible

Forgot one!

15. I'd be worried about the sprays from the farm too, when they're spraying the fields, you'll get lungfuls of toxic chemicals if you've got your windows open and haven't noticed them start. 16.ETA doesn't look like there's a garage...none mentioned. So where do you even keep your ride-on-lawnmower? I'd expect there to be a double garage as a minimum in that size of property, probably more a triple garage. I'm guessing the annex used to be the garages/stable block.

@HungryHouseHunter have you actually checked out the area? From your post you don’t seem to have much of understanding of where amenities are but you’re considering putting in an offer?!?

I would be cautious cycling into Winchester, there are very few bike lanes coming from that side of town and it’s all uphill on the way home!

Not remote - easy to close to a motorway for me.

Otterbourne has a fab community, I think besides the points raised you may miss out of being closer to neighbours. Also I wouldn't trust those fields won't get developed. Laws changed recently on farm buildings and Winchester council is short of housing stock.

So interesting seeing different people give opinions on this ‘rural’ location based on looking at maps. I know this area well and Compton is barely out of Winchester, it’s less than a 10 minute drive into the city centre and even less to the nearest large supermarket. I wouldn’t advise driving to the train station just because it’s expensive ( plus traffic can back up coming into the city in the morning depending on time you need to leave) but instead driving to the park and ride less than 5 minutes from Compton and getting that to the station, less than a quarter of the price than station parking. If you have that much money to spend you can get a very nice city centre property ( if you’re lucky it might even have parking 😆) and you’d have more than enough coffee shops on your doorstep, you could probably patronise a new one every week of the year without requiring a return visit.

Alternatively if you could find a property available I’d be looking for something on Kilham Lane/Sarum Road. Just out of the city centre with regular bus routes, walkable to both primary and secondary schools and supermarket but also right in the edge of farm land/woods. Not sure if it still is but at one point it was most expensive place to live per sq/ft in Winchester.

My thoughts:

1. The annex is so poorly thought out. You couldn't let it out as a holiday rental in my opinion, because who's going to want to have to walk outside to get to the main bedroom? And the cinema room being in the annex is crap if you did want to let it out as a holiday let, as then you couldn't use it yourself when it's let. You'd also need to check if you need to pay a second lot of council tax on the annex.
2. I don't know the area so don't know if it's priced well or not.
3. The kitchen in the main barn is awful, doesn't suit the property at all, the Aga is beautiful, then they put that very modern kitchen alongside it, doesn't work. I know some modern can go with traditional, but just that style of kitchen doesn't suit that kitchen room at all, in my opinion.
4. If your children are young, do you really want them sleeping on a different floor from you?
5. If you're burgled, I'd be concerned at the children being on the ground floor and also being on a different floor, not being able to get to them safely in the event of fire or burglary.
6. The upstairs sitting room fire is really crap looking.
7. With the upstairs sitting room being above the downstairs living area, the sound travelling will be crap if people are watching TV in both areas, or someone watching TV and the others want peace or have visitors etc.
8. There aren't enough pictures to really show this property, which is very disappointing for a property of this value. I'd expect better from Savills.
9. If you offer on it, get them to include the ride-on-lawnmower, to save you having to buy one.
10. The drone from the M3 would piss me off.
11. The pollution from the M3 would piss me off.
12. I'd be pissed off spending millions on a big house to then hear a bloody motorway when I'm trying to enjoy my big garden.
13. It's not remote in the slightest, and if you think it is, then actual rural life isn't for you!
14. You are very close to local amenities, and even walkable, so I think your fears over it being "too remote", are extreme (I don't mean that to be arsey at all).

But go see it, then you'll get a better idea if it's for you or not. If it were me, and I had this budget, it wouldn't be for me for all the reasons above!

From what other posters have said there are a few red flags with this property regardless of location. I would keep looking personally OP. I had friends that rented a barn conversion & the cost of oil was crazy so they often put up with no heating. It was always freezing there!

Looking at the way those windows are bulging inwards... it's incredibly pronounced. On the market for three years? Gallop back to safety now.

For a house with 3acres in a rural location it’s not that remote - the village/shawford is a few mins in the car, as is the train station. Ocado etc deliver (so does Amazon Prime, same day) so not an issue there.

The issue really is do you want a 3 acres (it takes a lot of maintenance or money if you get someone to do it for you) and to have to drive everywhere. DH and I nearly bought something like this then realised that in 20 years time we’d be completely isolated. Atm we are within walking distance of a train station - direct trains to London and to a nearby market town. GPS/supermarket are in walking distance if we ever cannot drive; hospital 15mins/ambulance within 5mins.

Actually it was reading a thread on here that made us rethink - about someone with parents who’d moved to rural Devon, been unavailable to help with grandchildren and gone of on cruises etc, who were now frail/elderly and complaining they have noone nearby to help get them to hospital appointments which were an hour away.

The house is lovely, and the cinema rooms etc are a bonus, but many people I know who’ve bought into that dream have been a bit disillusioned and isolated after a while, as they have to drive to see friends (can’t drink) or friends have to come and stay (and are generally too busy), kids can’t be independent etc.

Sorry but for £2.45M it’s ugly as fuck. Looks very 2007. Just absolutely no.

Think it’s lovely house but my idea of hell to live that rurally, only you can know. I love walking down high street & seeing 2/3 people I know, being able to walk to supermarket & not driving for over 15 years.

Remote?! That’s barely rural. Fuck me.

We drive 8.5 miles each way to a tiny rural supermarket and we’re only “rural”, nowhere near remote.

But no, don’t buy that. You are definitely the sort that will piss off the locals. Stay put.

Yes I have to drive for everything but only 5 minutes to a village that has a shop, pub etc. It took a bit of getting used to. I would say it depends on your life stage. If you have young children it’s fine. Teens a bit trickier. I love how peaceful it is compared to living in town. I do have other houses nearby though.

Compton is not remote 🤣 Sainsbury’s at Badger Farm is a short drive as is Waitrose in Chandlers Ford. I’d be more concerned about the motorway noise, not sure I’d spend that much to live next to the M3.

That would be a hard no from me. The house has relatively little objectively going for it- lots of space but not enough room where it matters. It's a triumph of style over substance, because it's not designed to be liveable, but to impress. It's VERY close to the M3 and stuck between Winchester and Chandlers Ford, so I would think both noisy and liable to be built around in the next few years, at the rate of current expansion. Check whether the surrounding farmland is owned by Winchester College, if so they would be quite likely to sell for house building.
It's not at all remote but you might find it inconvenient- to me, it's suburban, but then I love a dark sky and the sounds of owls and sheep not motorway traffic.

Though with that budget I would look for something smaller but in Winchester itself. You won't get as much house and land but you would get something lovely on a really nice part of town

Shawford has a train station, that's walkable. And it's 5 mins to the Sainsbury's supermarket which is a decent size. There is a lovely pub / restaurant in Shawford and it's right on the itchen trail which is a lovely walk into Winchester. I live in this area outside Winchester and really like it. Easy into the city, m3 is handy, some public transport, nice pubs and cafes and nothing is more than a 15min drive.

It's a lifestyle change by the sounds of it and that can be difficult to get used to. When we moved we came down from SW London so it was such a shock but we have gotten used to it really quickly.

You'll.spend your life in your car. We live in a village. Everything practical ( food, doctors,posting a letter, school,) involve a car. Everything fun involves a car for you going somewhere or people coming to you.
We have oil. You have to pay upfront. If you balls it up and run out you will be absolutely freezing in that house. If you run out the system will carry on sucking until the boiler locks out. Your pipes will end up full of sediment and need cleaning out. We used 3 months worth of oil in 6 weeks one snowy winter. Its not like mains gas. Its in a tank. Once it's used up that's it, no heating no hot water. Went down to minus 7° in the kitchen. Everyone wanted oil so it took weeks to get any as the snow kept cutting us off.
Can you get takeaways. No one will deliver to us so they are an absolute treat if we go to other people or go on holiday somewhere more urban
Do you mind spiders. Those roof areas will be absolutely full of them and they will be HUGE.

It’s got a bonkers layout. Two bedrooms with the only accessible bathroom up a flight of stairs. Somebody really didn’t think about that at all.

I think if you have reservations about driving etc it’s not for you- you’d be saying‘it’s not too bad, it’s only 40 mins to x’ etc etc. we’re rural, I’m in the car a lotttttt (2 different schools and train station), but I love listening to the radio and the scenery is stunning!

This isn't a style of house that attracts me with the huge hall , difficulty keeping it warm etc.
DH would veto if there was traffic noise.
If I was interested I would investigate solar heating with those big runs of roof and, indeed, you have capacity for ground source with the land.
It isn't remote but you will be tied to your car . We lived in a semi rural situation with limited public transport when I had a tiny child and I could see 17 + years ahead of compromise as far as their freedom , school and social life and my work life were concerned.

That is lovely

Dream Houses to Me

Can I just ask, nicely, what jobs they have as I have always wondered who lives in such nice places .
The closest, pricewise, that somebody I know lives in is a converted barn (oddly enough) it cost them around £770K but Years ago.
She worked in advertising and He was an antique dealer.
I live not far from Blackheath and love the huge houses in Blackheath Park and the roads they are on .. I assume they are accountants or Doctors or Surgeons etc.