Faith In The Sale

The English country house that was the long-time home of the late pop star George Michael has sold.

The 16th-century spread, in the village of Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, changed hands for £3.4 million on July 31, according to records with the Land Registry, England’s property record database.

Mill Cottage, as it’s known, was sold by Michael’s charitable trust, which names his sister as one of three trustees. The buyers are reportedly local to the area.

The Wham! frontman, who died in 2016 at the age of 53 in the home, had owned the riverside cottage since 1999, when he paid £1.45 million for it, listing records show.

Last month’s transaction appears to have been an off-market deal, with no public listing information available. But a glimpse inside the home was given in 2004, when Michael gave a tour on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show.

"It's not exactly spacious, but it's my idea of a beautiful house," he said in the segment. "Of course, it has really low ceilings because people were so short in those days. This is about as English and as historic as you can get."

When showing viewers the library, he noted how it wasn’t there when he bought the house, “but I think every house should have a library," he said. “I'd love to tell you that all the books in this library were Shakespeare or Wordsworth, but most of them are just antique books that we bought in bulk. But I think they're just beautiful, so they're kind of furniture rather than cultural input."

Across the pond in California, a mid-century modern style hexagonal home that belonged to Michael in the 1980s is currently on the market with an asking price of US$5.9 million.