Mansion owner says Adele made his property unsellable with haunted house rumors
3 min readThe owner of a mansion once rented by singer Adele has claimed that the singer’s suggestion the property is haunted has significantly hurt its chances of being sold. The mansion, located in Partridge Green, West Sussex, has been on the market for years without success, and the owner believes Adele’s comments during a 2012 interview have contributed to its lack of appeal.
In 2012, Adele, then 23, appeared on CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s show 60 Minutes, offering a tour of the 10-bedroom property where she had been living. The British megastar had signed a six-month rental agreement, seeking some privacy away from the intense media attention that surrounded her rise to fame. During the tour, she casually mentioned that the house, which had previously been a convent, was “a bit of a cliche,” and added that a portion of the house was “quite scary.” Though Adele never explicitly called the house “haunted,” her remarks were later reported by several media outlets, including Hello! Magazine, which in 2020 included Adele in a feature titled “Celebrity Haunted Houses.”
Now, Nicholas Sutton, who owns the property, has applied for planning permission to convert the house into apartments, citing Adele’s comments as a key factor in the difficulty of selling the property. Documents submitted as part of the planning application to Horsham District Council reveal that Sutton purchased Lock House, built around 1909, in 2003 from a property trader. Sutton invested significant time and money into renovations and purchased surrounding land to enhance the property’s privacy. After moving out in late 2011, he listed the house for £5.75 million (around $8.9 million at the time) but found no buyers.
When the house failed to sell, Sutton decided to rent it out, and it was during this period that Adele moved in. The 23-year-old singer’s remarks during the 60 Minutes interview led to subsequent media reports about the house’s possible haunted status, which Sutton believes have undermined its marketability. A planning application document states: “Unfortunately, during an interview on CBS, Adele remarked that she believed the house to be haunted. This comment negatively impacted future marketing efforts and continues to affect the property’s reputation to this day.”
Despite numerous attempts to sell the property over the years, Sutton’s efforts have been unsuccessful. The mansion was listed on major real estate sites, and Sutton employed professional photography, national PR campaigns, and even advertising in Country Life, a prestigious British magazine. However, according to the planning application, the only offer received during the past 14 years was in August 2020. That potential buyer withdrew from the deal after learning about the “haunted” reputation of the house, which was linked to Adele’s comments during her time there.
In light of these difficulties, Sutton is now requesting approval from Horsham Borough Council to convert the sprawling mansion into three separate residential units and to transform an existing garage on the property into a separate cottage. The council has yet to decide whether to grant this permission, and Sutton has not publicly commented on the situation.
The mansion, which includes impressive amenities such as a gym, swimming pool, tennis courts, and a helicopter hangar, remains unsold after years of attempts by Sutton to offload the property. The failed sales have been exacerbated by the lingering ghostly rumors, which seem to have been amplified by Adele’s offhand remarks during her short stay.
This case highlights the lasting impact that celebrity comments can have on the reputation of real estate, even if those comments are not meant to be taken seriously. Whether or not the house’s haunted reputation is the main factor in its inability to sell remains unclear, but Sutton’s frustration with the situation is evident. If the mansion is eventually converted into apartments, it will mark the end of an era for the property, which has captured the public’s attention for years due to its connection to the internationally renowned singer.
As for Adele, while her comments about the house may have been made in jest, they seem to have had unintended consequences, leaving the mansion’s owner grappling with the long-lasting effects of the “haunted” rumors.
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