Bungalow with a view sells for £3m

The cachet of this drab place - Flintshore - is its beachfront locationon the Sandbanks peninsula, near Poole in Dorset, recently named the fourth most expensive place on earth.

"The house is pretty run down inside and would need total renovation if you were to live in it," said Francis Payne, of the estate agency Tailor Made which sold the property. Like many of the peninsula's inhabitants, Flintshore's previous owners - two brothers who inherited it - used their bungalow simply as a holiday home.

But the new owner, who works in publishing, plans to turn it into a permanent residence for his family, knocking down the building and replacing it with a £1m New England-style home. He has also paid £200,000 for a neighbour's garage.

Sometimes known as the "Palm Beach of Britain", Sandbanks has average house prices just below those of Hong Kong, Manhattan and Mayfair.