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.