Is the Bantham Estate up for sale again?

It has been reported in the Daily Mail that Nicholas Johnston is putting the Bantham Estate up for sale for £30 million. 

Editor's Note: We have contacted the Bantham Estate this morning to confirm the information in the Daily Mail article, but we have not yet received a response - we will update this story as soon as we can. 

In a Daily Mail article, shared this morning, has reported that Nicholas Johnston and his wife Saskia are putting the Bantham Estate up for sale for £30 million, £18.5million more than the £11.5 million he paid for it in 2014. 

When Mr Johnston first bought the estate a decade ago, he said he wasn't planning to develop the area, but then submitted planning applications for a build a sunken beach club, a gym, cafe, swimming pool, an underground car park and a boat restoration yard, along with 16 new family homes for sale and rent. 

The Bantham Estate Vineyard, planted in 2021, has recently won a medal at the 2024 WineGB awards won a medal for its Pinot Gris white wine. The vineyard is now included in the sale of the estate. 

Mr Johnston's plans have met with fierce opposition locally, with a local group Save Bantham, being set up to preserve the natural area, and many of the estate's proposals being withdrawn. 

The Thurlestone, Bantham and Buckland parish council added in a clause to its Neighbourhood Plan in 2015 that they would not support any new houses that didn't have a Principle Residence Requirement, meaning they could not be used as second homes. 

Mr Johnston also owns Great Tew, a 4,000-acre estate in Oxfordshire that hosts the annual Cornbury Festival, nicknamed 'Poshstock', an apparent favourite of former prime minister Lord David Cameron.

We will update this story as soon as we can.