UK: €14.69m The buyer of 16 houses in a listed 18th century terrace in Bath will need a small fortune to restore them. Kate McMorrow reports

An entire Grade 1 Listed terrace in Bath, on the market with Savills, could interest one of the many Irish developers making forays into the UK property market.

The 16 tall elegant houses that make up Somerset Place are complete with long back gardens, balconies and coal cellars and fronted by a typical half-moon garden. The garden area of 0.3 hectares (0.75 acres) is included in the sale.

Savills says the guide price of over €14.69 million (£10 million) by informal tender takes into account the cost of restoring and converting the terrace.

Behind its glorious façade are the scuffed and well-used rooms of Bath Spa University, so buyers will have to spend a tidy fortune to restore the houses to their original architectural perfection.

Designed by John Everliegh and built circa 1790 in white Bath stone as fashionable weekend retreats for wealthy Londoners, Bath's terraces were immortalised in the novels of Jane Austen and contributed to the city's World Heritage status.

Somerset Terrace currently houses the art school of the university and has 100 study bedrooms in the attic. High running costs, from complicated planning permissions to expensive specialist materials, have forced the college to sell on.

David Mackenzie of Savills estimates it will cost around €735,000 (£500,000) to restore each house, which should market for around €2.35 million (£1.6 million).

This could be a conservative estimate, since a single house on the grander Royal Terrace sold last year for just under €5.9 million (£4 million).

Like its neighbour Lansdowne Crescent, Somerset Place is in a secluded position and restored houses are likely to command premium prices. The local authority will be happy to accommodate any reasonable proposal to restore the original framework of the terrace, suggests Mackenzie.

The left side of Somerset Place was partly destroyed by an incendiary device during the second World War and rebuilt in keeping with the existing architecture, so permission for apartments is likely here, with houses more probable in the right-hand section of the terrace.

Unconditional offers are invited by November 15th, 2005. The university intends to remain in occupation until at least September 30th, 2007.