Billionaires’ Row: new mansion on site of Richard Desmond's former home off Bishops Avenue fails to find buyer

The media mogul sold his press empire earlier this year but the mansion on the site of his former home is struggling to sell.

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Amira Hashish8 August 2018

Former Express Newspapers and Channel 5 owner Richard Desmond sold his Northern & Shell press empire to Trinity Mirror in February for £126.7 million, but the current owners of Fairways, the marble-clad mansion he owned off The Bishops Avenue in Hampstead, are having less luck.

The 17,000sq ft, eight-bedroom Billionaires’ Row home was the most expensive new-build in Britain when it was listed for £22 million in 2014.

However, with the top end of the London property market stalling amid Brexit woes, the house, which boasts a lift, hair salon, wine cellar, swimming pool and staff living quarters, failed to find a buyer and has been let to wealthy tenants instead.

Fairways is now on the market at a reduced price of £18 million, or to rent at £15,000 per week.