Home from home: Taxpayers to net €79m pad

IRISH taxpayers are to get the keys to a sprawling mansion believed to be Britain’s most expensive home — and the current owner is far from happy.

Updown Court, a 103-room residence in the Surrey countryside had a £70 million (€79m) price tag when it was put on the market six years ago by English developer Leslie Allen-Vercoe who renovated it to epic proportions with an Irish Nationwide mortgage. But the low-key tycoon failed to find a buyer and is in default with the loan which, with the collapse of Irish Nationwide, has been taken over by the National Assets Management Agency.

Now NAMA has lost patience and will this week move to seize the property despite Mr Allen-Vercoe’s insistence he was making progress in finding someone to take it off his hands.

“We have three people that we have been talking to about buying the house and one in particular was getting close — to the point of providing proof of funds last Friday — so there is no logic in NAMA doing this now,” he told the Irish Examiner. “Obviously, what will happen now is that these potential buyers, once they hear that the house is going into administration or receivership, will say we will wait until that happens and then one of them will steal it. That’s typically what happens when a property goes into administration — it gets sold off at a knockdown figure. All this is going to do is cost the Irish taxpayers a lot of money.”

Until then, taxpayers can enjoy a spell of brief, if distant, ownership of a property with features that would instil feelings of inadequacy on most luxury hotels.

Updown Court, with its heated marble driveway, five pools and a panic room, has 25 bedrooms and as many bathrooms split between the main wings, the guesthouses and the estate manager’s residence, a bowling alley, gym, cinema, indoor squash court, library, conference room and banqueting hall.

It sits on a 58-acre site with tennis courts, stables, a helipad, landscaped gardens and private woodland and its neighbours include Elton John, the Duchess of York and, when she’s visiting Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth herself. Marble and gold leaf are to Updown what laminate and emulsion are to more modest homeowners.

The house was originally built in 1924 and has had a variety of millionaire owners but Mr Allen-Vercoe, 67, has left more of a mark than any through his extensive expansions and elaborate refurbishments.

He said yesterday he accepted the house — already being cared for by a management company appointed by Irish Nationwide — was no longer his, but said he had remained committed to finding a buyer for it out of “moral responsibility”.

He said he was annoyed that he had not been told of NAMA’s intentions despite being in contact last week with representatives of both NAMA and Anglo Irish Bank, with which Irish Nationwide was merged in preparation for forming the new entity, Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.