In Cornwall, a Russian billionaire is believed to have paid £3 million for a property near Falmouth, a sum possibly the largest amount spent on an individual country house in the county, as reported by the Sunday Telegraph in an article by chief reporter Andrew Alderson published on their website.
They already own some of Britain's biggest football clubs and swathes of west London's most desirable properties. But now it seems that wealthy Russians think nothing of spending millions of pounds on holiday homes in some of the country's most remote and beautiful regions.
Russians have already bought hundreds of desirable properties around the Mediterranean. After buying scores of properties in London and the Home Counties over the past 15 years, Russians are now looking further afield. An oligarch has paid £6.8 million for a castle set in 3,300 acres on the edge of the Highlands, and Scottish estate agents have many Russians on their books.
Now the Russians have their sights on Cornwall for the first time. Their interest follows a survey that revealed house prices in the South-West have grown faster than in any other area of the country in the past decade - by 200%. The latest big sale was a country house called Nansidwell in a deal arranged by Savills, but the estate agent has refused to disclose the identity of the buyer.
Nansidwell, which has five bedrooms, a tennis court, a billiard room, a sauna, a gym, an orangery and a coach house, is set on a headland between the Helford River and Falmouth Bay. It was built early last century and is Grade II listed. It is understood that the new owner may want to build a heliport and swimming pool in the six-acre grounds. He is also looking to buy up neighbouring properties to give himself more privacy and has already purchased a bungalow next door and its paddock at over its market value.
