The most viewed homes of the year

Car lifts, subterranean pools, and a house with 20 bathrooms – from Hollywood Palladian to Essex glitz, these were the most snooped properties in Britain in 2020, according to website Rightmove.

Chiddingfold, Surrey, £30m

View image in fullscreenChiddingfold. Photograph: Rightmove

A new-build Palladian style mansion in Surrey’s stockbroker belt, Sydenhurst sits in 30 acres, with 10 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms plus a two-lane bowling alley as well as a steam room, tennis court, gym and spa room. Of course, there’s a home cinema and not one but two swimming pools. But despite a red-hot UK property market, developer Gerard Ayrton-Grime has failed to find a buyer; it first listed on Rightmove nearly 18 months ago.

Highgate, London, £40m

View image in fullscreenHighgate. Photograph: Rightmove

For £4 you can swim in the famous Highgate bathing ponds – or just a few metres away splash £40m on this 10-bed new-build with a breathtaking curving pool of its own. Take the elevator to the top floor, crowned with a rooftop glass dome plus wrap-around teak-planked terrace with panoramic views over Hampstead Heath. Relax in the full spa facilities – or run for safety to the panic room located on the second floor. The opulent mini-mansion opposite is actually the 4,400 sq ft staff lodge (four times the size of the average UK home), while below there’s a garage for four supercars.

Chigwell, Essex, price undisclosed

View image in fullscreenChigwell. Photograph: Rightmove

Nothing says Chigwell, Essex, more than a flash supercar, and this property has probably Britain’s most extraordinary garage. Below the new-build Tudorbethan exterior lies a 10-car underground carport with a car lift and turntable. Outside, there’s what the agents call an “Olympic-size” equestrian centre, with stabling for 10 horses and a “paddock island”’ set in grounds stretching over 52 acres. Only five bedrooms, mind, though each comes with floor-to-ceiling marble bathrooms, plus there’s a cinema room, gym, pool, sauna and steam room.

Weybridge, Surrey, £22.5m

View image in fullscreenWeybridge. Photograph: Rightmove

St George’s Hill, covering over 950 acres just outside London, is Britain’s swankiest private gated estate, developed in 1910 as a “gentleman’s refuge for captains of industry”, though John Lennon once lived there. This dazzlingly white-rendered neoclassical new-build in nearly four acres of the estate comes with the usual billionaire baubles; a cinema, pool, sauna, spa, gym, wine store, orangery and galleried salon. The “service court” to one side houses five cars and two staff flats.

Primrose Hill, London, £28.5m

View image in fullscreenPrimrose Hill. Photograph: Rightmove

Reportedly designed by Linda Grant, one of the judges on TV show The Apprentice, this eight-bedroom mansion sits directly opposite Primrose Hill Park, in a London postcode that has proved a magnet for actors and movie stars. Originally constructed in 1903, the 10,000 sq ft property now includes a lift serving all floors from the bespoke wine cellar and spa treatment rooms through to the bar area, gym, “double volume” entrance area, etc, etc. But we’ve looked behind the gym and spa rooms, and can’t find a swimming pool. Is this allowed?