Restored housing for the super-rich

The Life: With mansion houses costing £27 million, Cornwall Terrace is not your regular row of houses.

Think of terraced housing in the UK and a picture of grimy industrial suburbs is probably what immediately springs to mind.

But Cornwall Terrace could not be further from the stereotype.

The London street, which has been dubbed the world's most expensive terrace, features eight Regency-style mansions worth an estimated £400 million (Dh2.3 billion) combined.

The stretch, part of the Crown Estate, was once used by British Land as its headquarters.

The residences, which include a main house and a separate mews property for guests or staff, were rebuilt and restored under guidance of "renowned interior designers" and supervision of English Heritage and the Crown Estate.

According to The Telegraph, each property took 83,000 man-hours to create, with one year hand-digging below the basement to make two further floors.

Four properties have already been sold, two have yet to be released and two are on the market: Stanley House and Paget House are for sale for £27m each.

Six-bedroom Paget House - which has attracted interest from potential buyers in Abu Dhabi - has all the bells and whistles you would expect in a luxury development, and others you may not.

The main house includes a separate staff entrance and has five reception rooms, as well as a guest cloakroom and a lift serving the property's five floors.

Features include hand-cut Italian marble, period fireplaces, and other expensive finishes such as Kashmir gold detailing in one of the bathrooms.

Even the garage is not like the kind you would find on a regular terrace, sporting armour-plated doors that are "virtually impervious to even sustained attack". Few properties are finished to such a high standard, offer views across Regent's Park and a boating lake while boasting a "serene setting" so close to London, says Meriam Makiya, a partner for residential development at the Knight Frank property agency.

"These properties don't come around very often," she says.

The terrace, which is at the south-west corner of Regent's Park, was previously home to members of the nobility, admirals, generals and adventurers.

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