Bats, Asbestos, a Leaky Roof: This English Estate Proved to be the Ultimate Fixer-Upper

Growing up, Ian Wason often wondered what lay behind the tall stone walls surrounding Harpsden Court, a 400-year-old country estate close to his childhood home. It was many years before he discovered the answer: a beguiling but badly rundown, 17,000-square-foot landmark property in need of a multimillion-dollar restoration.

Despite the overwhelming scale of the project, he and his wife, Gigi Wason, fell for the charms of Harpsden Court, took on the project, and have reinvented it as a classic country home for their young family.

“It was basically semi-derelict when we first saw it,” said Ian. “Parts of it literally hadn’t been touched for almost 100 years and it had been on the market for four years. It was this complete disaster zone, which is why nobody bought it. We were the first and only people to put in an offer.”

Ian, 46, was raised 5 miles away from Harpsden Court, in the village of Medmenham, some 35 miles west of central London. After training as an accountant in London, he moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where he set up a debt counseling and financial-education company, and met Gigi, a 42-year-old interior designer.

In 2015, on a visit home to Ian’s parents, who were still living in Medmenham, he noticed that Harpsden Court was up for sale, listed for $16.43 million. He persuaded Gigi to go and have a look just to ease his curiosity.

What they discovered terrified them.

“It was overwhelming,” said Gigi. “It was obviously going to be such a mammoth project. You could see the sky through the roof, there was a whole zoo in the house—bats, crows, rats and mice—and it was dark and freezing cold.”

In 2017, Ian, Gigi and their daughters, Clementine, now 11, and Josephine, 9, returned to the U.K. They bought a house in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood, and welcomed another child, Madeline, now 5. But, over the next couple of years, Gigi started to hanker for more space than a London townhouse could offer. When Ian, who had always hoped to live in the country close to his family, mentioned the house was still for sale, and that its list price had been slashed to $11.42 million, Gigi agreed to another visit. This time around she was ready to appreciate the Gothic-style house.

Harpsden Court dates from the 17th century, according to Historic England, Britain’s official heritage organization. New sections were added to the house in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to the Henley Archaeological and Historical Group, the house was originally home to Lords of the Manor of Harpsden and, according to an ancient map of the area, there has been a house was on the site as far back as 1586.

It had been used as a location for a series of movies including “Quantum of Solace,” starring Daniel Craig, “The Woman in Black” with Daniel Radcliffe, and “Jude” starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet.

Outside, its 30 acres of gardens, woodland and fields easily outshone the tiny Astroturfed backyard of the Wasons’ London house. “It was like I saw the house with completely different eyes,” she said. “It was magical, and I was obsessed.”

In 2019, the couple paid $7.29 million for Harpsden Court, which came with three cottages and stables. The main house was habitable but not comfortable. Most of it had no central heating, the roof leaked, and Gigi describes the kitchen, fitted in the 1960s, as “unspeakably awful.” The property had 14 bedrooms, but only two bathrooms.

The Wasons hired the architect Ben Pentreath, who has worked for high-profile clients including King Charles and the Prince and Princess of Wales, and asked him for a light-touch modernisation plan.

“We did not want to lose the character of the house,” said Gigi. “I like designs which are timeless and I think that if you create something modern at some point it will tire.”

Pentreath suggested replacing the 1960s kitchen and adjacent open courtyard with a new, enlarged kitchen. The servant’s wing of the house, built in the Victorian era, was cramped and gloomy. “It was just a long corridor with loads of rooms off it, like the hotel in ‘The Shining,’ ” said Ian.

Pentreath recommended removing part of the first floor ceiling to create a galleried, double-height hallway with walls of painted brick and the original stone floors. To make the house more balanced, the number of bedrooms has been reduced to 10, and the number of bathrooms upped to six. Outside, the gardens needed re-landscaping, and the Wasons wanted a sauna and a swimming pool.

Work on the house began later in 2019. Alterations to landmark buildings in Britain require special building permits, which can take several months to obtain from local government planning departments, but they were permitted to get on with basic repairs such as the removal of carcinogenic asbestos insulation, installing a new roof, and restoration of the windows.

Removing asbestos from the roof was particularly difficult. “It was a very painful process,” said Ian. Before removal work could even begin, he had to commission an $14,000 report to determine whether there were any protected species of bats nesting in the roof space. These bats had to be carefully removed before a section of the roof was removed. “The asbestos removers then put on their hazmat suits and spent six weeks carefully removing the asbestos lagging from the heating pipes in the roof,” said Ian. This part of the work ate up $190,000, said Ian.

The backyard presented another challenge. It had been infested with highly invasive Japanese knotweed. The previous owners had tried to tackle the problem, said Ian, and had purchased a roughly $6,300, 10-year insurance policy to tackle any recurrence. Since the plant’s root network is notoriously hard to eradicate, contractors have to visit the property twice a year to spray and remove any new plants.

Back in the house, all the windows had to be removed, renovated, and reinstalled, adding another roughly $127,000 to the final bill. “We saved most of them, and where we couldn’t they were completely replaced with new oak windows,” said Ian.

Ian, who managed the construction himself, also oversaw the dredging of the ornamental lake in the grounds, and the installation of a ground source heat pump and central heating.

Then the electrics were tackled. “From the plans we had it had last been rewired in 1936,” said Ian.

Ian estimates that around a third of the total $7.6 million renovation budget was spent on these structural upgrades, carried out while the family remained living in London. Building permits were issued in spring 2020 for the alterations Pentreath had designed, and another third of the money was spent here. The final third went on decoration and finishes, overseen by Gigi who has created a comfortable country-house style home, with a soft and neutral color scheme.

Where possible the fabric of the house has been preserved. The flagstone floors, taken up when the new heating system was installed, were carefully re-laid. The decorative tiles around the range cooker in the kitchen were taken out of one of the original bathrooms, and as much of the original wallpaper as possible has been salvaged and restored. This, said Gigi, involved an artist spending six weeks at the house carefully redrawing patterns on water-damaged sections of the walls, and repainting them so that they blend seamlessly with the surviving sections of paper. The cost? Around $15,200, said Ian.

The first floor has a series of living rooms, a formal dining room, and a well-preserved original kitchen complex. Gigi now uses the main room of this complex for flower arranging and children’s arts and crafts, and there is also a hanging larder for preserving game birds, a pastry room, and a wine cellar.

There are three staircases leading to the second floor, the grandest of which is lighted by a stained-glass window depicting St George, the patron saint of England, battling a dragon. undefined One bedroom is dubbed the “Queen Mary” room, named by a previous owner for Queen Mary, who is rumored to have been a guest at the house.

This room has a four-poster bed, pretty tiled fireplace, and an exceptionally lavish en suite bathroom, with a free-standing wooden bathtub and wallpaper featuring oriental-style blossom trees. The principal bedroom is equally splendid with its bespoke hand-painted wallpaper by de Gournay featuring swans and white peacocks, a gilded French-style bed, and soft green silk moiré drapes.

The house contains many surprises; a bookshelf in Ian’s office is a hidden door leading to the original gun room, and if you look closely at the restored wallpaper in an upstairs hallway, a confection of fruit, berries and birds, there is a tiny naked nymph added by a previous resident, plus three miniature fairies Gigi had painted in honor of her daughters.

By Christmas 2021, two years after the reconstruction began, the family, plus dogs Tess and Charlie, were able to move into the Victorian wing, which was completed first. They have kept their London property for when Ian needs to be in London for work and for family trips.

Since then, Ian’s parents have moved into one of the cottages. Gigi’s cousin and her husband live in another.

Ian estimates that although $7.6 million has been spent on the renovation so far, more than the house cost to buy, that sum will keep going up. At the start of the year, for example, a section of the decorative domed ceiling in the music room—a second-floor reception area—collapsed unexpectedly and awaits repair. Work to shore up the stone walls in the garden is ongoing. And Gigi hasn’t got around to designing several of the guest bedrooms to her satisfaction.

“This project is going to go on forever,” she said.

MONACO—With a budget of $30,000 a month, a Manhattan couple looking for a luxury rental apartment could afford a 3,100-square-foot Central Park West corner apartment, with three bedrooms, 9-foot beamed ceilings and picture windows overlooking the park.

Take that same rental budget to tiny, glamorous Monaco, and they could expect to spend that much on a modest two-bedroom apartment of less than 1,200 square feet, with a small kitchen and windowless bathroom but a nice waterfront location near the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Hugging a steep stretch of Mediterranean coast between the French city of Nice and the France-Italy border, the principality of Monaco is among the world’s smallest sovereign states. With a footprint of just under 1 square mile, it is smaller than New York’s Central Park. But as one of the most appealing tax havens, it has created a rental market like no other, with international residents willing to pay millions of dollars in annual rent for the chance to live in style while benefiting from the lack of personal-income and capital-gains taxes.

Monaco tops the list of the world’s most expensive residential rental markets, according to a May analysis provided to The Wall Street Journal by Knight Frank, a real-estate company that analyzes international trends. Knight Frank looked at the top 1% of properties measuring about 1,100 square feet across different cities. Monaco’s luxury rentals in this category start at more than $19,000 a month, 36% higher than in Hong Kong, which comes in second, and twice as much as in Singapore and London. In New York and Los Angeles, such prime rentals start at about $9,200 and $8,300 a month, respectively.

And that’s just for 1,100 square feet.

The concentration of wealth in Monaco means there is plenty of demand for larger luxury rentals, with concierge service and hotel-level amenities, which can easily exceed $100,000 a month. Rent prices are as high as $280,000 a month for some of the triplex penthouses at One Monte-Carlo, a multi-building commercial and all-rental residential complex completed in 2019, located a few minutes’ walk from the casino. Penthouses come with their own outdoor pools and an in-house landscaping team that looks after terrace trees.

Crisscrossed by winding roads, pristine Monaco stands in contrast to the rest of the French Riviera, which can be rundown or rustic by turns. Favourable tax policies may be the main draw, but One Monte-Carlo residents also praise the lack of crime and the exclusive shopping, with Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent and Bulgari boutiques as neighbors.

Whether they are renting a one-bedroom for $150,000 a year or a luxurious penthouse for millions, Monaco renters must pay quarterly, a quarter in advance, along with a three-month security deposit.

Why would someone plop down more than $1.5 million on signing a lease—plus over $120,000 in additional annual service charges—rather than invest by buying outright?

Renting an apartment is often an initial key step in acquiring residency, explains Alexis Madier, a partner at the century-old Monaco law firm Gordon S. Blair, who specialises in seeing his clients through the application process. Tax benefits can kick in after one year, he says, and proof of at least a one-year rental agreement and a minimum 500,000 euro (about $535,000) deposit in a local bank are needed before that process can even begin. There is no guarantee the application will be accepted or renewed in the future, and renting is simply easier, faster and less risky than buying.

In 2023, Monaco had a permanent population of 38,367, and only about a quarter of those were actual citizens. The number of foreigners seeking residency has been generally rising since 2000, according to the government agency Monaco Statistics, and in the last few years, the luxury rental market has expanded to meet that demand. Applicants must commit to spending more time in Monaco than anywhere else, with renewals hinging on relevant authorities going through credit-card receipts and even chatting up doormen to verify applicant claims. It would be very difficult to fake your way into a residency, says Madier, so a Monaco base needs to serve as a real home.

Madier says that Northern Europeans, whose status as European Union or Schengen-zone citizens allows them a visa-free faster track to residency, have a standout presence among new arrivals. Notably near the bottom of the list are French nationals, who must still pay income tax in France regardless of a Monaco address. Some French families do relocate to take advantage of inheritance tax benefits, he says.

Americans owe U.S. tax on worldwide income regardless of where they live, so Madier says they stand to gain the least from acquiring residency.

Tenants at the One Monte-Carlo rental complex can access amenities at the nearby Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo. PHOTO: EMILIE MALCORPS FOR WSJ

The staff at One Monte-Carlo can help tenants secure a hard-to-get reservation at Le Louis XV-Alain Ducasse à l’Hôtel de Paris, a three-star Michelin restaurant at a neighboring hotel, where a set menu can cost $450. PHOTO: EMILIE MALCORPS FOR WSJ

The one thing that just about all new Monaco residents have in common is wealth, says Madier. The lawyer, who commutes daily from Nice, estimates that his foreign clients seeking residency have a minimum net worth of $30 million.

“Most residents adopt a low profile,” he says, contrasting his clientele with the day trippers and vacationers dressed to the nines. “When you see them on the street, they’re not showing off.”

A question hanging over the Monaco market—particularly when it comes to foreign investors and its banking sector—is whether a global watchdog may soon add the principality to a financial “gray list,” which would deem its anti-money-laundering efforts deficient and require increased monitoring from the group. But agents in Monaco say they expect little impact on the residential real-estate market, if that happens.

New residents may sleep in Monaco, but they take advantage of the south of France, known for its idyllic hinterland and excellent food, and the closeness of northern Italy, where they might go grocery shopping—if they go grocery shopping. One couple, who are in the process of acquiring Monaco residency, say they hire a chef to live in nearby France rather than bother with shopping and cooking. A pair of One Monte-Carlo residents treat nearby luxury hotels as watering holes, ordering room service or popping over for a meal at restaurants where a cup of coffee can cost $15.

Residency-seeking arrivals increasingly want ever grander domiciles, and the principality’s highest prices are found at new complexes or renovated historic buildings. Monaco agent Caroline Olds has a listing for a 3,450-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment located in a grand 1880s building, last renovated in 2021, with a monthly rent of $99,000. She also has a 2,750-square-foot, four-bedroom unit on the 31st floor of the Tour Odéon, a luxury residential skyscraper finished in 2015, asking $48,000 a month. Is that price rather low, considering the prestige of the building? “Well, it’s not the penthouse,” says Olds.

A longtime Monaco resident, Olds says that new arrivals are sometimes in for a shock. “People who come from outside Monaco are accustomed to big homes,” she says. For clients who can afford a mansion-size apartment, she has a penthouse listing, spread over four stories, with four bedrooms and some 8,300 square feet of terraces. The price: $268,000 a month.

Irene Luke, who runs the Monaco office of U.K. real-estate company Savills, says the new wave of luxury complexes like One Monte-Carlo have convinced some residents to stay put in rentals rather than buy. The Tour Odéon, for instance, offers residents a chauffeur on call, says Olds. And staff at One Monte-Carlo say they help residents with requests such as ordering bed-linen changes for last-minute return trips home from abroad and booking helicopters for quick jaunts to restaurants up the coast in France.

“They get used to the services,” says Luke, who handles both rentals and sales. Finding a comparable apartment to buy in this small area with precious few single-family homes, she adds, can cost upward of $50 million.

Starting down the path to residency creates a particular rhythm of tenancy and ownership, says Bjarni Breidfjord, the Paris- and Nice-based managing and creative director of Luxoria, an international interior-design studio with a Monaco clientele. Renting in the densely urban, high-rise microstate can quickly lead to buying in nearby France, he says. Clients “get a little claustrophobic, and then they need a country residence—anything that gets them a little garden space,” he says.

With a few notable exceptions, Monaco rentals are unfurnished and must be returned to their original condition after tenancy. “What is so weird about Monaco,” says Breidfjord, “is that even if you do an improvement, the owners want it back to the original state.”

He is often called upon to come up with solutions for wealthy clients used to sumptuous mansions who now plan to put down roots in boxy, low-ceiling apartments, where they may only stay for a few years. His solution: transform spaces with wall coverings and paint jobs, while leaving the floors as they are. “We refer to it as a ‘cosmetic renovation,’” he says.

This summer, Breidfjord says he will complete work on furnishing a 1,300-square-foot rental for a couple who are relocating to Monaco. With a monthly rent of $15,000—reasonable by Monaco standards—the couple are instilling a dose of luxury with a $375,000 budget, including Italian designer furniture and a $96,000 custom-built wine refrigerator.

Luke says the market for furnished apartments is starting to grow. Savills handles long-term, furnished units at the Columbus Hotel, near Monaco’s southern tip, where the 1,350-square-foot penthouse with an even-larger terrace rents for $37,500 a month. Miells, Monaco’s Christie’s affiliate, has a furnished rental at the opposite end of the principality also listed for $37,500 a month. The 2,450-square-foot three-bedroom, located on the 15th floor of a 1980s high-rise, has dramatic Mediterranean views.

People relocating “think they have enough to do moving here,” says Luke. With a laundry list that may include obtaining a visa, getting a residence card and moving children into schools, a turnkey home means “your accommodation is sorted immediately.”

One Monte-Carlo, where tenants are expected to sign at least a two-year lease, is a prime example of the investment being put into Monaco rentals. It is the brainchild of the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer, the state-controlled entity known as SBM, which owns a large chunk of the principality, including the casino, the opera house and the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, a 19th-century trophy property. Over the last few decades, SBM has gone all-in on luxury rentals, and its portfolio now includes 71 units, including three rare waterfront villas, where the rent is $280,000 a month.

In a market where luxury properties can sell for tens of millions, why is SBM emphasising residential rentals? “Very high rental fees,” says SBM Chairman and Chief Executive Stéphane Valeri, “represent very profitable long-term revenue.”

Valeri says the occupancy rate at One Monte-Carlo is close to 100%. Usually the only vacancy at any given time is a unit being renovated for the next tenant, he says.

SBM also now owns Villa La Vigie, an early 20th-century mansion just over the border in France that was long the Riviera base of late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Costing up to $160,000 a week in high season, it is also available for longer-term rentals of up to two months for more than $1.18 million.

SBM’s One Monte-Carlo is set to get a run for its money with Mareterra, a new $2 billion waterfront luxury complex and neighborhood built on land reclaimed from the sea. Some of the world’s best-known architects, including Renzo Piano and Tadao Ando, are involved, and residents will have access to a private marina.

Comprising 134 large units, some up to 16,000 square feet, sale prices are hovering at almost $10,000 a square foot, with rental units in the 10,000-square-foot range going for around $160,000 a month, according to Stéphane Brianti, managing director of Ageprim, a Monaco real-estate agency handling both sales and rentals at the development. Occupancy for buyers and renters alike is set to start in late 2024, he says.

Bats, Asbestos, a Leaky Roof: This English Estate Proved to be the Ultimate Fixer-Upper

Nobody wanted to buy Harpsden Court. But Ian and Gigi Wason took the ‘complete disaster zone’ head on, working little by little to turn it into a liveable home.

International renters are willing to fork over millions for luxury apartments, thanks to the principality’s favourable tax policies and access to the high life