20th July 2007

Jersey’s most expensive house goes on sale

Jersey has more than its share of expensive properties, but when the Earl of Jersey’s lavish home went on sale in 2007, it was news. So was the £12.5m price tag.

With 12,000 square feet of accommodation and grounds of 61 acres, south-facing Radier Manor, which sits in Grouville, was – and still is – among the largest properties in the island. It has a cinema, a gallery that can accommodate 50 guests for dinner, a library, several offices, a separate self-contained flat, two further cottages and three lodge houses, granite storage barns… the list goes on and on.

A rare estate

As agents E Le Gallas and Knight Frank put it, “an estate of this stature, importance and completeness rarely exists in the Channel Islands and it is even rarer to come to the market”.

However, appealing though it was, it didn’t sell quickly. A deal was agreed but fell through and, the following June, the Jersey Evening Post quoted a representative of Knight Frank that viewing numbers were down in general for properties in Jersey, mirroring a downturn in the mainland market. At the end of 2009 – two and a half years after it had been put up for sale – it was taken off the market, and Lord Jersey announced he would continue to live there, while developing the estate as a venue for weddings, concerts and other events.

A growing house

Lord Jersey arrived in the island shortly after the Second World War and bought an old house with a stable block, the latter of which he had demolished to make space for his grand new pile, which was constructed as a tasteful extension to the original house.

In 2013, Sotheby’s auctioned 202 lots of furniture, ceramics, prints, paintings, ivories and other items from Radier Manor, which had previously been owned by the late Earl and Countess of Jersey, which together raised just over £1m.