Most Expensive Foreclosure of 2009 – So far

Melville House, in Fife near Edinburgh, Scotland has been awarded the dubious honor of Scotland’s “most expensive foreclosure sale,” becoming one of the most expensive bank owned properties in the UK. (Private residences that is. ) It may possibly be the most expensive foreclosure in the world, although I am open to information otherwise and suspect it will not be keeping the world title this year.

According to the real estate agents it is, “An exceptional Grade A Listed , Neo-Palladian mansion house in a beautiful country setting. Original forecourt garden. Walled garden. Extensive lawns including a cricket pitch and enchanting tree house.” Features include:

• 11 bedrooms
• 7 reception rooms
• 5 bathrooms
• Outbuildings
• Garage
• Secondary accommodation
• Tennis Court
• 16.50 acres

Purchased by an Irish property developer back in 2000 for the bargain basement sum of £400,000 after being used as a school for children with special needs, and then sold on for £1 million in 2003 to another developer, David Falcon, the house was then restored to it’s original splendor.

It is estimated that around £2 million was spend on the restoration and the property was put up for sale almost immediately at a price of £4.5 million. At the time, the agent, Savills said, “We are trying to create a precedent. A clutch of houses in Edinburgh have already sold for about £3m. £4.5m is not such a big jump.”

That was in 2005. One credit crunch later and the property has now been repossessed by a bank and placed on the market for £2.5 million, which certainly makes it the most expensive foreclosure sale in Scotland if not the world. It doesn’t seem to have generated much interest, even at this price, and  I understand the agents are open to offers around the £2 million mark.

It certainly is a beautiful home, although no one ever seems to own it for very long. Even the original owner, the first Earl of Melville, died within a few years of completing the house. During WWII it served as a training camp, then became a boy’s school (shudders at the recollection of his own boarding school experiences) then a special needs school now all it needs is a loving owner with a few million pounds to spare to bring the gardens up to the spectacular standard of the house.

If that sounds like you, the agent’s website is here – Knight Frank Edinburgh