THE PALATIAL former home of the Church of England in Oxfordshire has gone back on the market just over a year after being sold.

This time, however, it has planning permission to be converted into 15 flats.

The Oxford Diocese, which formerly called the 8,054sq ft estate in North Hinksey ‘home’, put it on the market in October 2015 after moving to a bigger home in Bannister House at Langford Locks business park, Kidlington.

Estate agents Carter Jonas, which put a rough estimate of £2m on the former stately home, sold it for an undisclosed amount in January last year.

Oxford construction firm Basil Wyatt & Sons then applied for, and won, planning permission to turn the building into 15 apartments.

Now Carter Jonas has brought the site back to market, renamed ‘St Lawrence House’, and presumably significantly more valuable with its added planning permission.

Estate agent Jon Silversides, who has managed the sale on both occasions, said yesterday he had already narrowed initial offers down to ‘best bids’ and was now arranging a final contract of sale which should take four-to-six weeks.

As well as having outline permission for the flats conversion, Carter Jonas also suggested on its online listing for the property that ‘future modest development is considered likely within the grounds subject to planning’.

The building offers a mixture of ‘cellular and open-plan accommodation’.