A millionaire businessman has demolished his £6million seaside mansion with an indoor pool, gym and cinema to build nine luxury flats costing up to £2.8million overlooking Sandbanks.
Ashley Faull, 54, flattened the 20-year-old four-storey, 19-room house for the apartments, which will be priced between £1.495million to £2.8million, to meet the increasing demand for housing.
The half-an-acre plot backs onto Poole Harbour and overlooks the exclusive peninsula in Dorset.
Two years ago, Mr Faull built a second seafront home on the same plot and threw a 20ft-long James Bond-style rib, costing £120,000, in with the purchase.
However, Mr Faull made it a condition of the sale that he would hold an informal interview with the new owners before they could buy it, as he and his wife Heather wanted to make sure they would get along with neighbours.
Currently, there is a drastic shortage of houses coming onto the market in the affluent area and the lack of supply is driving prices up by £100,000 a month.
The businessman and his family now live in another luxury house on Sandbanks that they built for themselves.
Sandbanks homeowners include former football managers Harry Redknapp and Graeme Souness, computer magnate Sir Peter Ogden and celebrity interior designer Celia Sawyer.
The shortage of houses coming onto the market in the affluent area means that houses built relatively recently are being demolished to make way for either two or three homes one same plot to blocks of flats.
Mr Faull and his family had lived in the harbourside home for 12 years before it was knocked down.
He said: ‘Even though the house we had was only built in 2001 we decided to demolish it as we wanted to create more first homes or sea front homes for people.
‘It is quite brave to demolish the house as it was worth over £6million before we demolished it and obviously a worthless pile of rubble once demolished.
‘We lived on that land for about twelve years in a large house and loved it, we particularly loved 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 magnificent and magical spot.’
By 1999, Mr Faull was executive director of broadcasting at ONdigital, which became ITV Digital and folded in 2002. The BBC later used his plan to make core channels free with the aim of building foundations for film and premium sports packages, according to MoneyWeek.
He formed Sit-Up Limited with John Egan, who also stepped down as a director at ONdigital, in 1999. The pair continued their venture in 2004, setting up Price Drop TV – the first TV channel to hold reverse auctions – where sellers bid for the prices they are willing to sell their goods.
More recently, Mr Faull has vested an interest in jewellery, co-founding Postgoldforcash.com, where experts advise sellers on prices for their gold, in 2009, and later playing a role in price comparison website www.comparejewellery.com.
As well as a pool, gym and cinema, the now demolished house had four bedrooms, four reception rooms, a bar, a dressing room and a garage.
In its place, Mr Faull, a former ITV executive, is building nine flats that will each have three bedrooms and views of Poole Harbour from the main living space and principal bedroom.
The apartment building will have a large communal gym, sauna, outdoor hot tub, games room, summer house, boat store and paddle boards and kayaks for residents.
They will also have access to an amphibious rib that can go from land to sea which would allow them to travel easily to Poole Harbour’s various waterside restaurants and bars.
But his plans for the new apartments received several letters of objections from local residents due to concerns of overdevelopment in the desirable area.
Gerald Rigler, head of a planning at local history group The Society for Poole, said: ‘It is over development which is a problem across the local area.
‘It was a house and it is now becoming a block of flats that is not really the character of the area.
‘What I have a problem with is introducing more households in a situation where we don not have the infrastructure in the area.’
A local estate agent explained that there is a shortage of luxury flats – like the ones Mr Faull is building – in the area.
Tom Doyle, of Sandbanks estate agents Lloyds Property Group, said: ‘The Sandbanks property market can be a crazy world. It’s because more often than not, plots with development potential are worth more than the houses on them.
‘The local property market is extremely buoyant at the moment. We are finding properties are selling for well over their list price and gazumping is rife.
‘It’s a simple case of supply and demand and there is little around. There is an acute shortage of luxury flats especially on the water.
‘Although you can’t tell what’s going to happen in 18 months’ time when these flats will be ready, I can’t see the Sandbanks market ever going down and that is why people are prepared to take the risk and knock down a nice, luxury home and put up flats.’
