Adam Afriyie: Wealthy Tory MP has home on sale for millions after netting £16.7m for his other Westminster house
Jim Armitage on the financial affairs of Adam Afriyie, who was once touted as a possible successor to David Cameron
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Your support makes all the difference.Adam Afriyie, the wealthy Conservative MP who is selling his Westminster house for £16.7m, has now put a second of his homes up for sale for nearly £5m.
The MP for Windsor, who was touted as a potential challenger to David Cameron for the Tory leadership in 2013, has put his eight-bedroom home, in his constituency in Old Windsor, Berkshire, on the market with a price tag of £4.85m.
He had already put his large home near the Houses of Parliament on the market this spring, but neither property has yet found a buyer, according to the selling agents.
The grade II-listed Old Windsor house is a converted 18th-century coaching inn near the River Thames and boasts formal gardens, a croquet lawn, tennis court and swimming pool. His decision to sell both of his properties comes after he took out new loans against them last year with non-standard lenders.
Meanwhile, one of Mr Afriyie’s companies, Axonn Media, is more than a month overdue filing its accounts with Companies House, making it liable to an automatic fine. His businesses have been late filing accounts in previous years.
Accounts for another, Connect Services Limited, show he paid himself a £1.27m dividend last year despite profits only increasing from £525,000 to £708,886. The dividend meant the company’s bank balance fell from £878,173 in 2013 to £316,916.
If he manages to sell both properties for their asking prices, he will make a combined profit of £10.25m on what he paid for them.
Land Registry records show he paid £4m for the Old Windsor house in 2008 and £7.25m for his Westminster property in 2005.
Mr Afriyie was once said to be worth between £50m and £100m thanks to his media and marketing businesses. The man dubbed the “Tory Obama” for his rags-to-riches story has a policy of never discussing his personal wealth, finances or investments.
Over the summer he came out in support of 10 per cent pay rises for MPs. Speaking as MPs were set to see their salaries rise from £67,000 to £74,000, he said MPs who had pledged to give the extra cash to charity were “grandstanding”.
Mr Afriyie became a multi-millionaire through his IT and media businesses, which supplied content for companies’ websites.
Mr Afriye’s office said in a statement: “Adam does not comment on his private life: however, we can confirm that Adam and his family have enjoyed living in a wonderful home in a beautiful part of Old Windsor for the past eight years. They have been hoping to move to West London for some time in order to be closer to the constituency and the children’s schools during the week. People move home from time to time.”
Axonn said: “The company will be filing consolidated group accounts in due course.” Connect was yet to comment last night.
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