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A wealthy owner has made the ‘brave’ decision to demolish his £ 6million beachfront mansion which has its own indoor pool, gym and cinema.
Ashley Faull flattened the 20-year-old luxury home to build nine new apartments to meet growing housing demand.
The apartments will cost between £ 1.495 and £ 2.8million.
The now crumbling four-story, 19-room home sits on a half-acre lot that backs onto Poole Harbor and overlooks the exclusive sandbanks.
There is currently massive demand for housing in wealthy neighborhoods and the lack of supply is pushing up prices, a real estate agent said.
The development site at Lake Dorset. Image: BNPS
As a result, large houses built relatively recently are demolished to make way for two or three houses or apartment buildings.
Mr. Faull and his family had lived in the harbor house for 12 years before it was demolished.
The 54-year-old said: ‘It’s brave enough to demolish the house as it was worth over £ 6million before it demolished and obviously a worthless pile of rubble when demolished.
“We lived on this land for a dozen years in a big house and we loved it, we particularly liked the access to the water.
“We think the Evening Hill area is better than Sandbanks because there is less traffic and has better views. It is the most beautiful and magical place.”
Ashley Faull
In addition to a swimming pool, a gym and a cinema, the now demolished house had four bedrooms, four reception rooms, a bar, a dressing room and a garage.
In his place, Mr Faull, a former ITV executive, is building nine apartments that will each have three bedrooms and views of Poole Harbor from the main living space and the master bedroom.
The building will include a large communal gymnasium, sauna, outdoor hot tub, game room, summer house, boat store and paddleboards and kayaks for residents.
The £ 6million mansion which has now been demolished
They will also have access to an amphibious rib that can go from land to sea, which would allow them easy access to the various restaurants and bars on the waterfront in Poole Harbor.
But his plans for the new apartments received several letters of objection from local residents due to concerns of overdevelopment in the desirable area.
Gerald Rigler, head of planning at the local history group The Society for Poole, said: “It’s overdevelopment that’s a problem across the region.
“It was a house and it’s becoming an apartment building that doesn’t really have the character of the neighborhood.
“What I have a problem with is bringing more households into a situation where we don’t have the infrastructure in the area.”
A CGI of the site maps
A local real estate agent explained that there was a shortage of luxury apartments – like the ones Mr Faull is building – in the area.
Tom Doyle, Realtors at Sandbanks Lloyds Property Group, said: “The Sandbanks real estate market can be a crazy world. This is because more often than not, land with development potential is worth more than the houses on it.
“The local real estate market is extremely dynamic at the moment. We find that properties are selling well above their list price and gazumping is commonplace.
“It’s a simple case of supply and demand and there is little. There is an acute shortage of luxury apartments especially on the water.
The demolition operation on site
“While you can’t say what’s going to happen in 18 months when these apartments are ready, I can’t see the Sandbanks market go down and that’s why people are willing to take the risk and take a nice shot. , luxury house and furnished apartments. ”
Mr Faull and his family now live in another luxury home on Sandbanks that they have built for themselves.
