Three-bed house sells for £50m

It's not much to look at from the outside - a modest farmhouse with three bedrooms and three bathrooms.

However, the home has sold for £ 50million, a US record.

In a market where 'location, location' is everything, the key to the high price is the address - 16 hectares (40 acres) of land in the Hamptons on New York state's Long Island. The area is one of the world's most popular summer playgrounds for the rich and famous, with Sir Paul McCartney, P Diddy, Sarah Jessica Parker and JLo all having homes there.

The farmhouse, which has reputedly been bought by a Swedish industrialist, is seen as a great catch.

'It's the most private oceanfront property of that size in the Hamptons,' said a local estate agent. 'And it's probably the most unspoiled of the mega-properties out there.' Also included in the sale are two modest guest houses and a twobedroom caretaker's home.

A nearby converted barn serves as the main dining room. There is also some farmland, a fully-stocked fishing pond and a 23m swimming pool.

The price was twice the previous state record and eclipsed the national record of £38million that New York billionaire Ronald Perelman received for his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, last year.

The seller is Adelaide de Menil Carpenter, a professional photographer and oil company fortune heiress.

Mrs Carpenter's sister, Cristophe de Menil, made headlines last year when she rented her 16-room oceanfront spread a few kilometres away for £411,000 a year.