The Dh143m English pile with two homes built on a world-famous golf course

Palatial pile overlooking the famous Wentworth golf club comes with two homes - one of which has planning consent to be demolished.

The house is on the edge of Wentworth Golf Club. Courtesy Henry Wiltshire International

Alongside the local developers showing off projects at this year’s Cityscape Abu Dhabi, brokers were also offering a myriad of international opportunities - from studio apartments in Vietnam and Cambodia through to luxury holiday homes in the United States.

One of the most eye-catching, though, was a £27.5m (Dh143m) pile overlooking the famous Wentworth Club on the outskirts of London, in the village of Virginia Water just seven miles from Heathrow Airport.

West Drive is a plot of land containing not one, but two freehold residences in substantial grounds with direct access onto the West Course — one of Wentworth’s three championship golf courses and one of the top 100 courses in the world, according to Golf Monthly.

The Wentworth Estate was originally a seat of aristocracy, but in the 1920s was transformed by local builder WG Tarrant into an estate for luxury properties, with mansions built onto plots containing a minimum of one acre (4,000 square metres) of land.

Currently, the main property at West Drive is Chelsea House — a 9,940 sq ft home set in 2.25 acres of grounds that was purpose-built in 2008.

It is a south-facing property spread over four floors, with the main ground floor area containing a reception room running the full length of the property, an entrance hall, a kitchen/family room, a study and a dining room.

A lower ground floor has a pool, gym, games room, cinema, playroom and staff quarters, while the upper floors contain five bedrooms, including a master bedroom with two bathrooms and two dressing rooms — one of which is linked via a spiral staircase with a huge walk-in wardrobe taking up almost half of the second floor.

It is being offered alongside Cawsand Place, which is one of the few remaining homes built by Tarrant on the Wentworth Estate. It stands at 5,500 sq ft with an adjoining pool, but has planning consent to be demolished and replaced with a 22,500 sq ft mansion on 3.9 acres of land with an adjoining security building.

Interestingly, for an overseas investor, the two properties are owned via a pair of offshore companies registered in the Isle of Man, which effectively means they are not liable for Stamp Duty Land Tax — a UK property tax that was recently increased to 12 per cent for homes worth over £1.5m, or 15 per cent for any additional homes owned.

Q&A

Nicholas Spencer, senior sales manager at Henry Wiltshire International, tells Michael Fahy more about the Dh143m West Drive:

Why is the Cawsand property ripe for demolition?

Cawsand is a lovely, lovely structure but it’s simply not practical for modern life. It was last refurbished in the 1980s. It’s sitting there, waiting for somebody with the wallet and the willing, frankly, to do it justice.

I’ve heard of Wentworth. Why is that?

It’s the birthplace of the Ryder Cup and the BMWPGA Championship. It was recently bought by Reignwood Group – a Chinese conglomerate that is looking to reposition it as the number one golf club in the UK and among the top ten globally.

What are the neighbours like?

On one side is a pair of Gulf royals, and on the other is a Russian oligarch. Even among heavy hitters, these are heavy with a capital H. The whole estate is fenced, you have mature private trees and shrubs. Privacy is not even bothered to be mentioned. It’s assured. The whole premise of Wentworth Mansions when it was created was privacy and space.

And how about the local amenities?

Although Virginia Water is outside London, it is seven miles from Heathrow. It is six miles from Fairoaks, which is a private airport. You have some very good schools nearby (Eton College, Sunningdale, St George’s, St Mary’s Ascot and the American School in Surrey). You have the Royal Holloway, which is one of the premier research universities in the world. There’s a railway station five minutes away. It is 45 minutes from central London. And celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, The Fat Duck, is 19 miles away.