For sale...tropical home with world's oldest neighbour

HOUSE hunters seeking privacy and stunning views could consider the slower pace of a peaceful pad complete with a 192-year-old tortoise as a neighbour.

- Richard Ashmore

Fruitlands Cottage has a third of an acre of tropical grounds, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, full fibre internet and a very tempting asking price of just £118,000.

But there’s a catch for commuters — the pretty property is 5,000 miles away in the middle of the South Atlantic, on the British Overseas Territory of St Helena.

French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled there by the British in 1815. Now around 4,000 St Helenians, or Saints, live on the isolated rocky outcrop 1,100 miles from Africa and 1,800 miles from South America.