A house where cash-strapped students used to live in squalor has become the most expensive property in Brighton and Hove.

This Grade II listed building in Eastern Terrace, Brighton, has been put up for sale with a £3.5 million price tag.

The valuation makes the former College of Education accommodation building more costly than nearby Fife House, bought by telecoms millionaire Patrick Naughton two years ago for £3 million.

Property developer Charles Style painstakingly refurbished the 13,000sqm house. He previously converted many of London's defunct factories into fashionable homes through his company Angel Property.

Projects included the former Hartley's jam factory in Southwark, where actor Robert De Niro was reported to have offered £750,000 for a penthouse.

The renovation of the Eastern Terrace home took four years and included a 45ft swimming pool on the lower ground floor.

When the houses of Eastern Terrace were built in the 1820s they were some of the finest in the town.

Residents included Sir Albert Sassoon, friend of King Edward VII, King Manoel II of Portugal, who stayed at number nine during his exile in England, and former prime minister Sir Robert Peel.

The Prince Regent is believed to have used the exclusive address as his decadent seafront bachelor pad for entertaining women.

Bavarian minister Baron de Cetto created a record by staying in every one of the nine houses in Eastern Terrace between 1848 and 1858.

In 1919 this building became part of the Municipal Training College for female teachers. In 1961 it accepted men and was renamed the College of Education in 1964.

However, the college transferred to Falmer a year later, becoming Brighton Polytechnic and later the University of Brighton.

The buildings of Eastern Terrace were used as accommodation for teachers while they were studying.

In recent years, it was converted into a Forties street to film The End Of The Affair, starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore.

The impressive house has a kitchen and breakfast room, a dining room, seven bedrooms, four of them en suite, a banquette area, two cloakrooms, a family room, a drawing room, two sitting rooms, a library, a steam and shower room with marble tiled walls and mosaic ceiling, a courtyard garden with water feature, a games room, a leisure complex with swimming pool and gym and staff accommodation on the lower ground floor.

In most rooms, the original Regency fireplaces, ceiling plasterwork and window shutters have been restored and there are impressive sea views.

When asked what sort of person the house would suit, Jay Jayaram, of Strutt and Parker estate agents, who is selling the property, said: "A very rich person."