Property investor and dress-hire expert Niall O'Farrell of Black Tie got some good news this week when he was granted planning permission to build two spanking new detached houses with underground swimming-pools on Shrews- bury Road. Last year, he paid £3.6 million for a site beside the College of Pharmacology.

The Edwardian-style three-storey over basement houses will share a site of less than half an acre - very cramped conditions for this road where most homes have up to an acre of garden.

Mr Farrell apparently plans to live in the larger of the two houses, and is confident of finding another young millionaire to stump up around £4.5 million for the other house - a smaller version with just 4,500 sq. ft. That's an astonishing £1,000 per sq. ft, putting it on a par with Fifth Avenue, Belgravia and the Peak in Hong Kong.

If all goes according to plan, Niall will get his house for free.