What makes a property fly into the minds of a buyer, lodge it there and inspire the transaction of thousands, if not millions, of pounds? It’s a bit more complicated than making sure your home smells of baking bread. Although aroma has its place, along with location, presentation and timing. And though Ladderstile House – which is so intriguing that passers-by regularly walk in off the street for a quick gander – has all of the above, it doesn’t have them in quite the proportions one might imagine.

Let me introduce you to David and Anjana Devoy. Both barristers, both 44, both from comfortable middle-class homes, but with a yearning to be different. How do we know this? Their children are called Orlando, Inigo and Avalon. On top of that, they have both knocked law on the head and now spend their time dreaming up extraordinary places in which to live.

A few years ago, the Devoys built a wacky house in Clapham, south London, whose unique selling point was that it curves around a living tree. It was featured on Grand Designs. It made the cover of interiors magazines. The Devoys still have it, renting it out for location shoots. “It’s popular when directors want to represent a millionaire’s life-style,” Anjana says. The Curved House was a big success; understandably, the Devoys wanted to repeat the experiment. “We are seduced by projects,” she says by way of explanation.

In 2006, the couple were offered a quarter-acre plot of land right beside Richmond Park. I mean right on the park: the plot came with its own private equestrian gate, which means that when nearby Ladderstile Gate (from which the house takes its name) is closed for the night, you can still get into the park. Which means you can ride out at dawn. Naked. Apparently, the bohemian children of the owners of the dilapidated mews house that was on the land used to do just that.

The Devoys bought the land for about £950,000, knocked down the mews house and proceeded to spend two years transforming the plot into something astounding. It is now a complicated, contemporary arrangement with sliding glass screens, wooden cross-laminated beams, a turquoise-tiled indoor pool, a cinema room and free underfloor heating, thanks to nine boreholes driven 100 metres down into the earth. Oh, and a stable for two horses, with a remote-controlled entertainment system.

“This house has brains and beauty,” David says. “If you were in Bangkok airport, you could switch on the CCTV and if you noticed from the stable camera that the horse was a bit bored, well, you could turn the television on so it was entertained.” Forget about equestrian gates: the lucky horse or horses who get to live at Ladderstile House can munch their hay to Hannah Montana. No more long faces there, then.

The stable is right next door to a corridor of ground-floor bedrooms. Admittedly, you might not want to wake up alongside a real-life version of My Little Pony, unless you are a stable hand. Then again, if you were a horsey millionaire, you probably wouldn’t mind the smell of manure in the morning. You know how eccentric wealthy horsey types can be.

Then there’s the pool –10 metres long. At one end it has a giant projection screen made of mother-of-pearl. At night, it’s a bit like having your own watery cinema. “We had a wonderful time the other evening, sitting in the pool watching Comic Relief,” David says, with no discernible irony. You can also recline on furry blankets upstairs in the “hide” and watch Lenny Henry with starving Africans on a second big cinema screen, or treat yourself to sunset over Richmond Park.

This house screams indulgence from every inch of its acid-splashed resin floor and hydroponic second-storey gardens. “It’s not the house for a recession,” Anjana admits – which may be a problem for the Devoys, who are now rather keen to sell Ladderstile House. The number of people able to stump up the £5m they want is surely limited, whatever the state of the world economy.

Any prospective buyer has to be happy with a giant swimming pool in the heart of the building, easy about having Dobbin stabled up outside the bedrooms and relaxed about living next door to about six other terraced homes. The house, it should be noted, is also nowhere near the chichi heart of Richmond itself, but is about 1½ miles from deeply unglamorous Kingston hospital. And from Norbiton station, which was used as a location for the 1970s sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.

And yet. This may not be a house for a recession, but it’s great for a fun-lover – and don’t tell me all the fun in life has been credit-crunched out of existence. Imagine waking up in Ladderstile House. Naturally, you are in the first-floor master bedroom. You greet the day by looking up at the skylights above the bed; clouds are scudding overhead. Is it a good day for a ride? Of course it is.

Padding across the floor (black American walnut), you quickly wash your face in the ensuite bathroom, decorated with shiny tiles (imitative of crocodile scales), after which you slide open a series of pierced stainless-steel shutters (imitative of forest foliage) and walk out along the balcony. If it looks imitative of nothing other than a good Richmond day, you dress in your immaculate riding habit and run down the back staircase (also American walnut) to greet your steed, which is taking it easy down in the stables with MTV at full blast. Having tacked him up, you unlock the equestrian gate with your personal key and enter Richmond Park for an early canter, before as much as a milk float has been able to break the magic cast by the Elizabethan oaks and red deer.

Returning, you leave Dobbin in the company of the Fimbles (his favourite show) and greet your spouse, who has just had a Pilates class in the upstairs studio and done a snappy 100 lengths in the pool (also heated by the boreholes). You wave through a series of glass screens to the first of the morning’s tourists, who have pushed open the impressive steel gates, each printed with an artist’s impression of Richmond Park, to see how the other half lives.

Are there people like this still around? Think Elton John and David Furnish in jodhpurs and you might be in the right terrain. Or Jodie Kidd. Or, at a pinch, Zara Phillips.

“I hope we will attract a philanthro-capitalist,” David says. I think he means someone wealthy who doesn’t mind living rather near bourgeois suburban south London. “And someone who is green – they can cycle down to Norbiton station.” There is parking for five cars on site, should you tire of crossing Richmond Park in the Elizabethan manner.

Anjana leans over the railings at the pool and gazes at her home, which hopefully will fire somebody else’s wild imagination. “I’m an aspirant,” she says. Does this mean she enjoys breathing the fresh air of Richmond Park?

To see more pictures of Ladderstile House see ladderstilehouse.co.uk

Ladderstile House is for sale with a guide price of £5m with Hamptons; 020 8946 0081, hamptons.co.uk

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