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33-528: The land and buildings for Wilderness Reserve have been assembled over time with various land purchases by Hunt. The first purchase was Heveningham Hall in 1994 of 467 acres (189 ha), however but it was the later purchase of the nearby 4,500 acres (1,800 ha) Sibton Park estate that marked the start of the main Wilderness Reserve project. Various other acquisitions of land and buildings have also been made, including Cockfield Hall . Designs for

66-608: A 0% commission in its first three months of operation to attract customers, thereafter charging higher rates than competitors. The property crash of 1988–94 had a severe impact on the firm. In a 2010 interview, Hunt recalled: The experience prompted Hunt to expand into lettings, relying on the additional income stream to cover operating costs during future downturns. Other notable Foxtons initiatives from Hunt included an early web presence, initiated in 1999, and an 800-strong fleet of branded Minis driven by agents. During Hunt's tenure Foxtons grew to 20 branches, over 1,600 employees in

99-835: A colonel. After leaving the army, and following a short spell washing cars in Ottawa , Canada, Hunt returned to the UK in 1972 and spent the next eight years working as an estate agent in Woking and Guildford , Surrey. In 2021, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his net worth at £1.345 billion. Hunt's property career began at age 19 when he borrowed a £100 deposit to buy a one-bedroom conversion flat in Walton Road, Woking for £4,500. In 1981 Hunt, then aged 28, founded Foxtons with school friend Anthony Pelligrinelli, who put in £30,000 to fund

132-605: A condition of the 1981 sale were carried out. Following the death of Al-Ghazzi in 1991, the estate was left in the hands of the receiver . Questions were again asked in the House of Lords about the hall and the terms of the 1981 sale. The house, together with 467 acres (189 ha) of land was soon put up for sale at £4.5 million by the Department for the Environment , despite a campaign to have it retained in public ownership as allowed by

165-429: A number of buildings with the rewilding of much of the land. The estate features an orangery , which is Grade I listed in its own right, as well as a Grade II* listed temple. The main entrance gates to the estate feature two lodges with pyramid roofs which are also Grade II* listed and are connected to the main house by an underground passage. The hall hosts an annual motorsport and classic car event since 2016,

198-574: A property in Kensington Palace Gardens , London, known as London's most expensive street, where he plans to house his collection of vintage cars. Hunt owns and operates Pavilion , a business members' club in Kensington High Street . Pavilion is an up-market serviced office catering to entrepreneurs and business executives; it has been described by The Times as "...an office rental club aimed at affluent start-ups". It opened under

231-530: Is a Grade I listed building in Heveningham , Suffolk , England . The first house on the site was built for the politician and regicide William Heveningham in 1658. The present house, dating from 1778 to 1780, was designed by Sir Robert Taylor for Sir Gerald Vanneck, 2nd Baronet with interiors by James Wyatt . The hall remained in the Vanneck family until 1981. After a period of decline and uncertainty about

264-681: Is adjacent to the Reserve; within the Reserve Hunt has made various buildings available for private hire, including Sibton Hall . He told the Financial Times : "Farming alone won't pay for a modern estate to survive. Real estate will.". In 2014, Hunt also purchased Cockfield Hall in Yoxford in Suffolk, England, a Grade I listed private house standing in 76 acres (31 ha) of historic parkland, partly dating from

297-654: The Wilderness Reserve , an area of restored natural lakes, parkland and woods surrounding Heveningham Hall situated in Suffolk 's Yox Valley on the Heritage Coast . The reserve is part of a recently implemented design by the noted landscape architect 'Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1716–1783). In developing the Reserve, Hunt purchased 5000 acres of land, restored buildings and oversaw the reintroduction of wildlife and various species of flora and fauna. Hunt's private residence

330-556: The 120,000 sq ft Fulham Green Campus next to Putney Bridge tube station in 2012 and their agents Savills , Frost Meadowcroft and Hanover Green let these offices to tenants including Emma Bridgewater , Hurtigruten , Green Fields Technology and Sweaty Betty . In May 2013 Ocubis purchased the Grade II* listed building at No.5 St James's Square , formerly the Libyan Embassy. The Times newspaper reports that Hunt plans to refurbish

363-568: The Heveningham Hall Concours d'Elegance . The hall is also the location of the annual Heveningham Hall Country Fair, which raises money for local charity causes through the Heveningham Hall Country Fair Trust. Jon Hunt Jonathan Michael Hunt (born June 1953), is a British billionaire property entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of UK estate agency Foxtons , and is more recently known as

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396-436: The UK and US, £110 million in turnover and £34 million profits. Director Magazine called the company "...London's biggest, brashest estate agency." Hunt is quoted as saying that Foxtons clients expected it "…go to war for them", while others described the company culture as overly competitive. A 2006 BBC documentary of the UK estate agency industry accused Foxtons agents of misleading clients, falsifying signatures and destroying

429-452: The building to provide 15,000 sq ft of office space, along with 13 luxury flats currently under construction on an adjoining site. In October 2015, the parent company for Ocubis filed accounts showing that pre-tax profits in 2014 reached £3 million, up from £1.6 million the year before, with staff numbers rising to 82 from 61. The company is said to be seeking rents of £160 per sq ft for its office building at 5 St James's Square, making it among

462-509: The business in its first year. The company took its name from a village near Hunt's Suffolk home. Hunt has since commented: The firm's office in London's Notting Hill Gate neighbourhood distinguished itself from competing estate agents by opening a then-unusual 74 hours a week, including weekend and evening hours, rather than the conventional 40 hours worked by rival estate agents. Foxtons expanded to other London districts, each new branch offering

495-514: The estate have been made available for holiday accommodation, including a clockhouse, barn and a gate lodge, as well as a farmhouse said to have been visited by Alexa Chung . In 2013, Hunt told the Financial Times: "Farming alone won't pay for a modern estate to survive. Real estate will." 52°16′37″N 1°28′53″E  /  52.276980°N 1.481481°E  / 52.276980; 1.481481 Heveningham Hall Heveningham Hall

528-422: The estate supports 13 pairs of breeding owls and is visited by bitterns. In 2013 it was reported that 72,000 ash trees under the threat of European chalara disease would need to be removed from the estate, to be replaced by hornbeam and oak. Many buildings have been converted to offer high-end holiday accommodation: Hunt's private residence, Heveningham Hall is adjacent to the estate, but some buildings within

561-599: The founder of Pavilion , a business members club chain. He has developed Wilderness Reserve , an area of restored natural lakes, parkland and woods situated in Suffolk 's Yox Valley . Hunt was born in June 1953 in Colchester , UK into an army family. Hunt was awarded a scholarship to Millfield boarding school . He left after 'O' Levels to join the army, passing basic training for the Royal Artillery , where his father had been

594-405: The future of the hall in the 20th century, it was purchased in 1994 by the billionaire property entrepreneur Jon Hunt . Hunt has since spent considerable sums of money on both the house and ground including the implementation of plans by Capability Brown for 500 acres (200 ha) of parkland and lakes that had never been realised. Various events are now held in the grounds each year, and parts of

627-467: The grounds are integrated into the adjacent 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) Wilderness Reserve , also owned by Hunt. The first house on the site was built for William Heveningham in 1658 and it stood for about 60 years before being rebuilt by John Bence in 1714. Dutch-born banker Joshua Vanneck bought the estate in 1752 and acquired more land. Vanneck's son Gerard Vanneck inherited the estate in 1777 and immediately commissioned Robert Taylor to rebuild

660-921: The grounds of Heveningham Hall commissioned from Capability Brown in 1782 by Gerard Vanneck , the then owner of hall, were only partly implemented following the death of the client the following year. Hunt set about restoring Brown's original design, soon after purchasing hall in 1994 and sought the help of landscape architect Kim Wilkie. During the restoration of Brown's vision required the removal of modern features inconsistent with an 18th-century design including concrete roads, car parks, telegraph poles and farm outbuildings were either demolished or buried. and Wilkie says that "98 per cent" of Brown's original 600-acre design at Heveningham were now in place. Wider areas have been developed according to principles that Brown would recognise as consistent with an Arcadian pleasure ground including lakes, parkland and woods and various historic manor houses. The estate includes part of

693-456: The house again with further work to complete the East Wing from James Wyatt . Capability Brown produced designs for the gardens in 1782, but died before they could be implemented and only a few elements were constructed at the time. During the 19th century some of the gardens were remodelled, but the house remained largely unchanged. The estate remained in the hands of the Vanneck family, being

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726-470: The married home of The Hon. Andrew Vanneck and Louise Timpson , until shortly after the death of William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield ; however, the house fell into disrepair during the first half of the 20th century and was further damaged by a fire in the dining room in 1947. On inheriting the property, Margite Wheeler offered the Hall to the nation in 1965. It was acquired in 1969 by English Heritage and

759-465: The most expensive in London. In 2010, Hunt formed Bacchus Partners, which invests in sites suitable for residential or retail development in the South East of England . Focusing on sites between £200,000 and £1 million in value, Bacchus works with local property professionals who identify suitable investments in their local area in exchange for an equity stake in the development project. Hunt owns

792-402: The name "Dryland" in 2011. Hunt purchased Heveningham Hall is a 5000-acre 18th-century Suffolk estate in 1994. It hosts an annual motorsport and classic car event, the Heveningham Hall Concours d'Elegance . It also hosts an annual country fair, reported to attract over 10,000 attendees. All proceeds from the fair go to local community charities. The Grade I listed Palladian country house

825-482: The noted English landscape architect Kim Wilkie. Restoring Brown's vision required Wilkie and Hunt to remove modern features inconsistent with an 18th-century design. Numerous concrete roads, car parks, telegraph poles and farm outbuildings were either demolished or buried. Hunt has purchased additional land around the hall, including the 4,500 estate of Sibton Park , and is developing the whole area as Wilderness Reserve , which combines high-end holiday accommodation in

858-507: The signs of rival agencies. Hunt later agreed that the company had made mistakes, though he felt the programme was edited unfairly. Hunt sold Foxtons to private equity group BC Partners for £375 million in May 2007, at what some commentators described as the height of the UK property market. Interviewed by the Evening Standard newspaper in 2010, Hunt insisted that his timing of the sale

891-451: The state of the building and when it would be open to the public. A 1991 debate in the House of Lords noted the deterioration of the hall, with one speaker describing it as being in 'a deplorable state', with concerns also being raised about the current ownership being impossible to determine due to use of bearer shares and that it was therefore impossible to verify whether renovations that were

924-493: The terms of the 1981 sale. After being on the market for 3 years, the hall and grounds were bought in 1994 by current owner and Foxtons founder Jon Hunt and his wife for use as a family home. By 2003 it was reported that Hunt had spent £1m on renovations to the hall. Since the 1990s the Hunts have also returned 510 acres (210 ha) of the grounds using Capability Brown 's original – but never implemented – designs, working with

957-495: The valleys of the River Blyth and River Yox that lead to the nearby Minsmere nature reserve on the Heritage Coast . Hunt has said that he wanted to allow nature to recover naturally by rewilding much of the land. Country Life magazine reported, "…sharp-leaved fluellen , field madder, heartsease , corn mint – these and other plants that an arable farmer would regard as weeds flourish unsprayed". Returning this farmland to

990-470: The wild over two decades has allowed significant numbers of animal species, flora and fauna to settle in the area. Hunt has created new areas of pines, lakes and meadows, planting 800,000 trees and managing land for wildflowers. 2,000 nest boxes have been installed and there are now breeding populations of raptors, barn owls, buzzards and other at-risk species, together with many other mammal, amphibian, moth and butterfly populations. Country Life reports that

1023-517: Was designed by 18th-century English architects Sir Robert Taylor and James Wyatt ; its garden was designed by noted 18th century landscape artist Capability Brown and is being restored by Kim Wilkie. The project is expected to require the planting of 800,000 trees. Up to 20 hectares of broadleaf woodland is being planted each year. Wilkie is implementing a set of plans drawn up by Brown that had lain abandoned since 1782. The plans had hitherto been unrecognised as Brown's work. In 2013 Hunt launched

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1056-488: Was repaired and sold in 1977 (or 1981 ) without the contents, which remained in the English Heritage collection. It was bought by Abdul Amir Al-Ghazzi, an Iraqi businessman, via a Swiss-registered company with conditions that certain works would be carried out on the property. A few years later the building suffered another major fire which gutted East Wing and questions were asked in the House of Lords in 1987 about

1089-418: Was straightforward: Since selling Foxtons, Hunt has made significant investments into commercial and residential property in central London. These investments, along with other family property holdings, are managed by Ocubis Ltd. In December 2011 Ocubis received planning consent for a 120,000 square foot mixed use redevelopment of its building at 150 Holborn, designed by Make Architects. Ocubis also refurbished

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