Newbuild mansions on the market for £1.8m in an upmarket country village and have been called ‘hideous blobs’ by unimpressed neighbours.
The village of Thortonhall, outside Glasgow, is a millionaire hotspot where the average home sells for one million pounds but the latest addition to the increasingly gentrified country landscape is causing tongues to furiously wag.
Five new homes, with five and six bedrooms, are currently being advertised by local estate agent Nicol, with prices starting at £1.3m.
According to the sales blurb, the grey buildings make up what will now be known as Cartside Farm Estate.
They say: ‘The open-plan interiors feature spacious kitchens, bright living areas, and elegant ensuite bedrooms, with floor-to-ceiling windows, skylights and sliding doors enhancing natural light and indoor-outdoor flow.
‘Built with sustainability in mind, the homes boast solar panels with storage batteries, energy-efficient systems, and natural materials.’
Agents add: ‘The exterior blends rustic stone cladding, sleek aluminium, and durable slate roofs, combining style with eco-friendly design.’
Despite their description as ‘truly impressive’, they have been labelled by some locals as industrial and a glorified cowshed.
The property has also been mocked by users of viral property group ‘Spotted on Rightmove’, with one user observing: ‘That seems a hell of a lot of money for not much land or privacy.’
Five new five and six bedroom homes are currently being advertised for £1.3 to £1.75 million have been ridiculed
The developers claim the new properties will all form part of an exclusive estate (Pictured: A mock up of the finished project)
Others have branded the new builds as looking ‘like prison blocks, especially in military grey’ while someone else commented: ‘I can smell the Dubai chocolate from here.’
Another added: ‘5 houses all crushed together, no thanks. If I had the money and wanted a faux barn conversion, I would also want a bit of land with it, and a maximum of 1 neighbour but preferably none.’
The affluent hamlet in South Lanarkshire lies just east of the boundary of East Renfrewshire, close to Waterfoot and Jackton.
As a former farmland, before and during World War II it became one of the sites selected for relocation of government departments to avoid bombing raids.
After building a small community from the 70s to the noughties, in 2002 it was named Britain’s wealthiest neighbourhood with 13% of households commanding six-figure incomes. Its then population of 520 included no fewer than 80 millionaires.
With mostly Beverly Hills style gated properties, it attracts a host of well to do homeowners from doctors, lawyers, accountants and entrepreneurs to even a man who once forged banknotes.
Celebrities including Scottish bra queen turned Baroness Michelle Mone owned a £1.5 million five-bedroom new build with now ex-husband Michael Mone in 2008.
Football players including Celtic ace Aiden McGeady also sold his luxury mansion for more than £1million while other residents have included former Rangers footballer Peter Lovenkrands and Scottish comedian Fred MacAuley.
When the Mail visited this week, construction on the project was very much ongoing
Some locals have compared the developments to a set of prison blocks
In 2011, a leafy street in Thorntonhall (Bowmore Crescent) was identified as having one of the most expensive average house prices within the Scottish property market, with an average house price of £908,000.
The new properties in West Holehouse road have taken around four years to build and are accessible by a single track road which leads to neighbouring Eglesham around nine minutes away.
The only other property within proximity is a private house accessible via cattle grid nearby.
They are also visible from a distance on the other side of the field to those living on the hill in nearby Newton Mearns.
One local who overlooks the property told the Mail: ‘It is a bit of an eyesore to be honest. I don’t hate it, but why would you want to live that close to each other with your windows pointing into their windows for 1.6 million?
‘Why choose to move there instead of a kilometre along the other side and to the real Thorntonhall, Thorntonhall proper, for like an actual nicer house? It’s maybe even less expensive there.
He added: ‘If you like new age, modern sort of grand designs, then you’ll like the colour but it’s just a great blob, isn’t it? I don’t think they asked for any planning permission to build them either.
‘It used to be one farmhouse, almost on the crest of the hill. You could only see the roof which I think was rustic red or something.
‘The new build seems a bit pointless because there’s nothing round there. There’s no public transport but then if you’re paying 1.6 million, you’re not getting the bus.’
Another neighbour described the build as ‘hideous’ adding: ‘Why would you buy it? They are very close. You don’t want to be looking at your next door neighbours.’
Another local Margaret Glen who can see the property from afar added: ‘They don’t bother me particularly but what would worry me is if they start to build more and more and more because it’s meant to be farmland.
‘It was a farm before and now it looks like a bigger barn actually.
‘There’s two of them very close together. If it was me, I wouldn’t be spending that amount of money to look at my next door neighbour.’
While another local diplomatically said: ‘It’s not my cup of tea, but each to their own.’
Other locals expressed their concern over the lack of infrastructure around the new development.
One explained: ‘It’s a single track road. It’s probably not suitable for three car families, which is sort of normal for that type of house. You can’t predict how many cars people are going to have, but it’s a bit of a squeeze.
‘I’ve got no objections to regeneration and upgrading of dilapidated places and I’ve got no issue with the house because it was just really like an old farm stead before and I think it’ll bring a bit of a new life to the area.
Inside the houses have been outfitted well with all the modern luxuries you would expect for the price
Despite this, some locals are not optimistic about the chances of the remaining properties selling
‘I just don’t think the road’s probably that suitable for potentially the amount of cars that have been up and down it.
‘So the infrastructure should be better. If people are coming in and out that way, there’s not a passing bay, so it’ll be difficult for them.
‘Historically a lot of the land was owned by farmers but now it’s grown and all our neighbours are brilliant people.’
But despite the mixed views, fellow neighbour Colin Miller added: ‘It’s tucked away so doesn’t bother me.. It’s a lovely area.’
However, despite the sales-speak of the agents, only one of the five properties on the gated estate is currently under offer and new drone pictures taken by the Mail this week show the development is very much still a work in progress.
Speaking to the Mail under condition of anonymity, one prominent developer in charge of multiple projects in the South East of England said it was unlikely the ‘ugly’ properties would attract much interest in the current climate.
He said: ‘They’re in the middle of nowhere – but it is an affluent area.
‘My gut feeling is that the forthcoming budget will penalise people with houses over a million – so everyone will pay a levy on the value of their house and as a result houses over a certain value will struggle to sell.
‘When you consider the average house costs £300,000 and the average council tax is 1% of the value of property (£3000) it seems a fantastic way to level up from the Labour government’s perspective and a great way to move money from the South to the North.
‘Under those rules, anyone buying a £1.6million house would be paying £16,000 a year in tax.
‘The market is stagnant everywhere, big houses over a million are really struggling to sell.’
