He is the football manager-turned-TV personality who spent three weeks living off the land in the I’m A Celebrity jungle.
And Harry Redknapp is almost ready to move in to his new eco-home where he will once again rely on nature by way of state-of-the-art rooftop solar panels.
The first photos of the new-build, in the leafy Branksome Park suburb of Poole, which the ex-Spurs boss is building from scratch at a cost of £3.4million, show construction is well under way and the exterior of the house is largely complete.
Nestled up a narrow path and surrounded by trees, scaffolding still cages the house and the front drive remains a muddy building site.
But when finished, it will still be an impressive mansion for him and his wife Sandra to live after downsizing from their lavish four-storey Sandbanks property.
The first photos of the new-build, in a leafy suburb Poole, which the ex-Spurs boss is building from scratch, show construction is well under way and the exterior of the house is largely complete
Nestled up a narrow path and surrounded by trees, scaffolding still cages the house and the front drive remains a muddy building site
Redknapp and Sandra plan to move into the house in March next year and are living in temporary accommodation in the Dorset area while their new home is built
When finished, the impressive mansion will boast an open plan kitchen, family, breakfast and dining area and a separate sitting room and study on the ground floor (artist’s impression)
In August it emerged the couple had sold their four-floor seafront home on ‘Millionaires Row’ in Sandbanks for a cool £7million and were looking to downsize
The ground floor will boast an open plan kitchen, family, breakfast and dining area and a separate sitting room and study.
On the first floor will be the office, master bedroom, with two walk-in his-and-hers dressers and ensuite bathroom, and four other ensuite bedrooms.
According to plans submitted to Poole Council, the 73-year-old’s new place will have cutting-edge energy-saving technology.
An energy and resource report states there will be solar panels on the roof for hot water and other solar technology will provide electricity.
In August it emerged the couple had sold their four-floor seafront home on ‘Millionaires Row’ in Sandbanks for a cool £7million and were looking to downsize.
The sale is thought to have netted the couple £3million after it fetched twice what Redknapp paid for it in 2015, with him splashing some of the profits on this new development.
To pave the way for his eco-home, builders bulldozed an abandoned home that was sold to developers for £1.48million in July 2019.
Redknapp and Sandra plan to move into the house in March next year and are living in temporary accommodation in the Dorset area while their new home is built.
View from outside the property, which according to plans submitted to Poole Council will have cutting-edge energy-saving technology
To pave the way for his eco-home, builders bulldozed an abandoned home that was sold to developers for £1.48million in July 2019
Since being crowned King of the Jungle in 2018, Redknapp has appeared on numerous TV shows and was recently due to host a charity football match before it was scuppered by lockdown.
This week he hit out at the restrictions and told Good Morning Britain: ‘I went a couple of weeks ago to Chelsea, when they let the 2,000 fans back in… it was a great evening, the nearest person to us was 10 yards away, we didn’t come into contact with anyone… now we’ve gone back to square one again.’
Redknapp’s move to environmentalism is a path also trodden by other footballers looking to construct green homes.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2009 built a Scandinavian-style eco-home in Cheshire which was kitted out with solar panels and heat pumps to warm the pool.
The Red Devils’ boss initially built the house as a player before returning to it when he was made manager in 2019.
His former United tea mate Gary Neville also tried to develop a hillside eco-pad in Bolton – branded a ‘Teletubby house’ because of its five pods – which would have been powered by a 128ft wind turbine.
But it was rejected by the council and sparked a two-year planning battle that eventually saw Neville abandon the plans and instead move to Manchester.