HAMPSHIRE still remains a happy hunting ground for Lon-don buyers wanting to move to the countryside.

And talk of improved City bonuses at the end of 2004 should continue to keep the top end of the market buoyant.

According to statistics from the Kni-ght Frank office in Basingstoke, more than a third of the agents' buyers this year were from London.

Mark Potter, a Knight Frank director in Basingstoke, said: "Prices of prop-erties below the £1million level have fallen by between seven per cent and 10 per cent in the second half of 2004."

But the market has seen a severe shortage of supply of high-quality property above £1.25million, which has fuelled competition between potential buyers.

For the last Gazette Property of 2004, the country and village house specialist agents in Basingstoke - Knight Frank, Lane Fox and Dreweatt Neate - have looked through the year to find some of the prettiest cottages that have sold.

Thirty-eight per cent of sales at Knight Frank were to London buyers, and Yew Tree Cottage was one that attracted interest from viewers coming from the city.

Yew Tree Cottage is in Chandlers Green, a hamlet in the Stratfield Saye Estate area, near Mattingley.

The oak-framed cottage sold in June after marketing with a price guide of £725,000.

Its three acres of grounds are divided into garden, paddock and common land, and it adjoins farmland.

Christmas came early at Lane Fox when a cottage believed to be more than 250 years old sold in the early summer with a price guide of £585,000 - as the old property, which was once owned by the Duke of Wellington's Stratfield Saye Estate, is called Christmas Cottage.

Its accommodation has three bed-rooms and the ground floor comprises two reception rooms, a kitchen-break-fast room and sun room.

The village of Old Basing was where staff of Dreweatt Neate picked one of their top cottage sales of the year.

Marketed with a price guide of £395,000, Hill Rise Cottage went under offer in July and the new owners moved in at the end of October.

The thatched treasure is listed and dates back to the 17th century, when it is thought to have been built as two farm workers' cottages. Hill Rise Cottage was described as "delightful" by Dreweatt Neate.