NOW it's official – Teignmouth's seafront apartments with the millionaire views, are the best in the area.

The Riviera holiday flats have just been awarded Visit Britain's highest accolade – a five-star gold rating.

'I am really overjoyed. The inspectors came last week, but gave very little away, apart from saying that a gold award was very hard to obtain,' said Emma Roddick, the general manager of the Riviera.

'As far as we can tell, we are the only complex in south Devon to achieve the top rating.'

The historic 184-year-old listed Riviera fell into disrepair, but was given a £2 million refurbishment by developer Hugh Bromage, but his business went bust before his vision could be completed.

Local businessman Ralph Brown bought the main Riviera building, and carried out more improvements.

But efforts by a bank to sell the flats on the roof were scuppered by the recession, and eventually Mr Brown managed to buy them.

Mr Brown spared no expense in fitting out the two penthouses and the other three flats as luxury holiday lets with top of the range furnishings and fittings, along with the latest technology, and holidaymakers from all over the country have already enjoyed the stunning panoramic views across the sea, estuary, countryside and moors. High season rental for a penthouse is nearly £3,000 a week, but they can accommodate up to eight people.

It means an influx of well-heeled visitors to the resort all the year round, and Ms Roddick said there was a lot of interest from potential guests from around the world – including China, Hong Kong, America and Germany – who spotted the Riviera on the web.

'We hope there will be repeat business and holidaymakers tell their friends and family about us. The comments from visitors have been really encouraging.

There was an open day for invited local guests last week, and Ms Roddick added: 'There seems to be a bit of a mystery about what has been going on up here, so we wanted people to have a look for themselves to see exactly what is on offer. Everybody was impressed.'