A ‘rare’ private house nestled in the Queen’s Sandringham Estate is on the market for $1.5 million

• A private home on the Queen’s beloved Sandringham Estate is on sale for just over $1.5 million.

• According to the estate agency listing the 3 bedroom Station House, it’s a rare opportunity.

• Originally built to house the local station master, the home has a lot of potential for renovation.

A property nestled within the heart of the Queen’s Sandringham Estate is on sale for just over $1.5 million.

Sowerby’s estate agents are currently listing a private home “in the heart” of Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, UK, for £1,195,000, or around $1.57 million.

But royal fans will likely recognize the location, given it’s one of the Queen’s privately owned estates that she inherited in 1952 after her father King George VI died, according to the Royal UK website.

Sandringham is where the royal family traditionally spend the Christmas season.

Within the Queen’s 8,000-hectare estate lies Sandringham House, which is where the royal family has traditionally spent the Christmas period since the 1980s, The Week reported. The historic property, bought by Queen Victoria back in 1862, is now maintained by over 200 members of staff.

Ticketed tours are available of Sandringham House, as well as its formal gardens consisting of 25 hectares of lawns, lakes, and historical trees.

Meanwhile, the newly for sale Grade II listed home is only a stones throw away from the royal residence.

According to the property brochure, the home stands adjacent to the former Wolferton Railway Station, which the royal family used up until the 1960s whenever they came to Sandringham.

Michael Birkhead, manager of Sowerby’s Hunstanton office, told Insider the home has a “quirky layout” because of its historical roots.

Michael Birkhead, manager of Sowerby’s Hunstanton office, told Insider the property was originally built to house the station master working at the former “Royal Sandringham Station.”

It was both a home and a place of work, he said, which explains its “quirky layout” on the ground floor designed with lots of smaller rooms. But after the first owner bought it from the rail company, a conversion was done to give it more of a family home feel, Birkhead added.

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The home itself comes with three bedrooms, a fitted kitchen, two formal reception rooms, and a garden room with views of the countryside.

The property features a principal master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and dressing room, two further bedrooms and a family bathroom, a fitted kitchen with high-vaulted ceilings and an Aga cooker oven, as well as a garden room with views of the surrounding countryside, the brochure details.

In terms of who the space is suited to, Birkhead said they’ve already seen interest from a wide range of buyers from those looking for a quiet place to retire — like the current owner — to young couples interested in escaping city life.

For them, he added, Station House’s location 15 minutes away from Kings Lynn station is perfect should they ever need to get into London for work.

Birkhead also said there is “great scope” for new buyers to put a modern spin on Station House.

As the last conversion to the home was 30 years ago, Birkhead said if new buyers are interested in renovating, there would be “great scope” for making changes so long as they have planning permission.

“Obviously people now are living with more open-plan nature,” he said. “We could easily see somebody looking to do more work and extend the house again, just to change it to a modern feel.”

Station House is ideal for anyone looking to be closer to nature.

Station House itself is just “surrounded by parkland and farming,” Birkhead said, which makes it a haven for an outdoorsy lifestyle. It’s also full of wildlife, he said, and is known for being a hotspot for pheasant shoots.

“It’s a fantastic village for country walks,” he added. “Tons and tons of deer everywhere around there, and you’re got walks through Wolferton down to the marshes.” According to the property brochure, the home is also adjacent to a Natural England reserve — a home to swallowtail butterflies and “a significant number of rare and uncommon dragonflies,” the UK Government website says.

All three of the bedrooms feature “uninterrupted” views of the idyllic countryside surroundings.

Per the property brochure, all three bedrooms are located on the first floor, accessible via a turning staircase.

Each room features “uninterrupted” views of the surrounding greenery, while the primary bedroom, in particular, looks onto the nearby church. The main bedroom also comes with a cozy sitting space within the house’s turret space and a door that leads to a separate dressing room.

The Station House is a rare find, given there are only a handful of properties in the village that are privately owned.

“There’s only a handful of properties in the whole village that are privately owned,” Birkhead said. These include the railway station, the Signal Box, and the Station House itself.

“All the other properties are owned by the Sandringham Estate, so it could be another 30 years before this property ever comes to the market again,” he added. “If you want to go live in Wolferton and own your own property, there is only a handful of properties that will ever be available,” which is why he said the brochure describes it as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”

With a “once in a lifetime opportunity” home, new buyers could very well be bumping into royals on a regular basis.

Sandringham, and Norfolk as a whole, is a hub for the royals. It’s almost like a retreat for them, and one of the “few places in the country where they feel comfortable to actually be out and about and not always be under scrutiny,” Birkhead said.

Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s countryside residence, Amner Hall, is also close by, and Birkhead said it’s not “uncommon” to see the couple in local pubs and delis. When he was alive, Prince Philip was frequently spotted around town riding his horse, he added.

“We see them all the time,” Birkhead said. “That’s what’s quite nice about this part of Norfolk because the royals have been here for so long, they are left alone.”

Read the original article on Insider