House For Sale £450,000
Great Common, Inkpen, RG17

If you’ve ever daydreamed about building your own place, but were put off by the uncertainty and cost of gaining planning permission, or if you’re a seasoned builder looking for your next unmissable opportunity – this is it!

Currently in a back-to-brick condition, planning permission has already been granted, so if you follow the plans and architect’s drawings, you could be getting:

·      a 2,100sq ft home

·      4-bedroom family home

·      in just under a fifth of an acre 

·      a 5-minute walk to a great country pub and café

·      in an idyllic rural setting

Situation

6 Great Common sits between Inkpen Great Common and the Great Plantation, giving you country living with a distinctly rural feel, miles of green space for almost endless country walks and plenty of equestrian options. All with the community hub of a great local pub and Honesty coffee shop with freshly baked bread and pastries just a five minute stroll away. 

Newbury is just 7 miles away, there’s a bus stop on the road, or a 15-minute drive by car. 

Property

As a self-build/development opportunity, this is not mortgageable in its current state on a standard residential mortgage.

However, if you’re in a position to self-finance, or can arrange finance, you’ll have a fantastic opportunity to create either a dream home for you and your family, or a highly desirable property in a highly desirable area to sell once completed.  

Planning permission has been granted for a 4-bedroom family home, of a super spacious 2,100 sq feet/195m2 set in a huge 0.19 acre plot. 

To the front, surrounded by mature hedges, you have a 5-bar gate which leads you onto a herringbone pattern block-paved driveway that provides parking space for at least three vehicles. This could be increased should you opt to use some of the lawn for additional parking.

There’s side access to The Cabin and the rear of the house.  

If extended to the current planning permission, you could have:

Hallway

Through the front door into the wide entrance lobby with double doors taking you into the hallway. From here you have stairs to the first floor, with storage below, and access to the three main reception rooms. 

Before you enter the real pièce de resistance of this home, the kitchen/dining/family room, you have a handy downstairs loo.

Living room

This long, sunny and spacious room could include a feature fireplace, and faces to the south-east, ensuring great light throughout the day. 

A side door takes you into the hall, or at the far end of the room, into the open-plan dining area and heart of the home – the family room. 

Playroom / home office

Keep noise, mess and mayhem contained, and the little people happy with their own space. Of course you don’t have to use this as a playroom, it would also make a wonderful home office with views to the front of the house. Perfect for keeping an eye on comings and goings. 

Kitchen / dining area / family space

The real wow factor will come with this wonderful expansive family space, bathed in natural light from the roof lantern above and the wide bifold doors that take your eye down the length of your garden to the woodland beyond. 

The kitchen could wrap around the central island, with long counter surfaces and sociable breakfast bar, built-in ovens, hidden dishwasher, wine fridge… it’s entirely up to you. With added light and views from the front and rear-facing windows.  

The dining area, connecting the kitchen and living room, could be where you’ll celebrate birthdays, family meals, do homework and plan for the future. Or it could be where you create your library or home gin distillery - it’s all open to realising your unique vision. 

The living/family area will be the space everyone will gravitate to, the most used space, and being just a plan at present, entirely up to you how you arrange and use it. Perhaps a big refectory table with benches for feeding the masses. Some sofas, armchairs and a big TV to leave the lounge as a telly-free adults-only space. Maybe you’ve always fancied having a pool table and games area? That’s the thing with a project like this – you have choices. 

The utility room, just off the kitchen, provides space for white good, muddy boots and mucky dogs, coats, storage and more. A side door takes you out to the garden. 

UPSTAIRS

Four generous double bedrooms wrap around the family bathroom. 

Bedroom 1

To the front, the master bedroom has a built-in wardrobe and space for plenty of furniture or uncluttered space. You choose. 

Ensuite bedroom

Facing down the long garden, this bedroom offers an ensuite with shower, lit from above by an opening roof window. 

OUTSIDE

The Cabin  

Need a dry warm space for that classic car you’ve been meaning to restore, or perhaps always dreamt of buying? 

Maybe you’ve always fancied having a separate studio, workshop, yoga room? Or just somewhere to keep the tools, lawnmower and other ‘outdoors stuff’. Well here it is, The Cabin, around 460sq ft of sturdy timber construction with power and light.  

Rear garden

Extending 140 feet from the current conservatory, the rear garden gives you plenty of options. You could have a swimming pool, vegetable garden, wildlife pond and habitat, outdoor kitchen and shade-giving pergola, or a mix of them all – you have the space. 

Currently you have a slabbed patio and extensive lawn area, dotted with mature trees and shrubs, enclosed by a low post and rail fence on one side, a mature hedge on the opposite, and at the end, beyond the raised gravel patio area – a real sun trap, a close-board panel fence. 

Leisure

Inkpen has its own outdoor sports pavilion and you’re just a few miles from Newbury with its golf courses, racecourse, unique Watermill Theatre and slightly further afield, The Living Rainforest, as well as a selection of gyms, canoe club and athletics facilities. 

In the opposite direction you have old-world charm of Hungerford, known nationally for its antiques shops, expansive common, rivers and canal.   

Both have a fantastic selection of pubs and restaurants – including some that are Michelin-starred, a cinema, theatre, arts venues, shops and businesses. 

Transport links 

Connections by road include the M4, A4 and A34, making it commutable from London, while rail links in Newbury, Hungerford and Kintbury take you into London, towards Swindon, Bristol and Cardiff in the west, and via nearby Reading, with its newly opened Elizabeth line, to most of the country including the Heathrow and Gatwick airports.  

Services

Mains electricity, water and drainage.

Heating & hot water from an oil-fired boiler.

Broadband

According to Gigaclear, their FTTP service is available at up to 830Mbps (average).

Schooling

According to the West Berkshire Council website, the catchment areas are:

Primary. Inkpen Primary and St Joseph’s Primary School.

Secondary. John O’Gaunt School.

Council 

The local authority is West Berkshire Council.

The house is Council Tax band E.

Tenure

Freehold.