Our research shows significant variations in income streams between the English regions. As Graph 2 in the gallery illustrates, the Eastern and Northern regions are more reliant on agriculture than the South and the West. Understanding and fully exploiting the opportunities offered by location are fundamental to the long term performance of rural estates.

Residential and commercial property income dominate in the South East of England. Our analysis shows residential lettings void periods over the past two years in this region of 4.4%, which is well below the average for ‘All Estates’ of 5.5% suggesting that rental demand is also higher here than in other regions.

Tourist regions

Rural estates located in the South West of England successfully tapped into the tourism opportunities on offer in this popular holiday region. Leisure income contributed over 10% of gross income in each of the past two years – double that recorded on ‘All Estates’.

The recent announcement that the proposed changes to the capital and income tax treatment of holiday homes are being shelved will help support this income stream.

Taken from
Estate Benchmarking Survey 2010