This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
A home that has been described as the perfect property has sold for £51m in Chelsea, London. The house has become one of the most expensive in the UK and came with a £7.6m Stamp Duty price tag.
The West London home was sold for 300 times the average house price in England and Wales. It is one of the most expensive houses to ever sell in the UK.
The house is also 18 times the size of the average new build, and has nine bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a cinema, a Japanese water garden and an indoor swimming pool over four floors.
The owner commissioned the mansion, and originally put the house on the market for £55m. An offshore company bought it for £51,191,950, Land Registry data reveals.1
The property is found on Boltons Place, in The Boltons, a street containing late 19th and early 20th century mansions.
The Stamp Duty bill, equivalent to 15%, is the consequence of the buyer using a Bermuda-based firm to purchase the house. There is also a further bill of £218,200 per year, as the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) is payable by companies that own residential property in the UK.
The home was described by estate agents Knight Frank’s Knightsbridge office as an “exceptional detached recently built mansion” that was “presented in immaculate condition throughout.”
The advertisement stated: “The intention from the outset was to bring together the very best in the fields of construction and building services together with the most accomplished artisans and craftsmen to create and build the perfect house.
“Only materials of the highest quality have been employed by the most skilled workmen in order to create a house of unparalleled and exacting design.”1
Three developers bought the site on which the 17,500 sq. ft. house is built for £15m in 2002. The site used to be home to a BT telephone exchange. The building was demolished and Barrett Lloyd Davis architects were commissioned to design three mansions. Walter Lilly & Company built the houses, completed in 2006.
Property consultant Simon Barnes called the property “the perfect home.”
He continues: “The properties weren’t built by developers to sell, they were built for them to live in.
“They are amazing. There is a spacious hallway, very good reception rooms and bathrooms. They are as near a perfect home as you can get: great for entertaining in and great for living in.
“In Prime Central London, 99% of these houses are listed or in a conservation area so you can’t just rip one down and rebuild it. Boltons Place was built on an old telephone exchange. In Prime Central London it is unique. The sale represents great news for the Treasury and the owner has a wonderful new home.”1
Managing Director of Hanover Private Office, Alex Newall, says: “Boltons Place is well laid out and in a superb location. There are only a handful of homes like this in London. The ceilings are four-metres high, there is a massive lift, the master suite takes up a whole floor; it really is an awesome space.
“There is demand, but it is the availability that is the problem. Most streets are listed so it is difficult to find somewhere to build a house like this. A lot of people will keep the façade, but rebuild the house behind it.”1
Buying agent Henry Pryor concludes: “Strange though it may seem, this property looks good value when you consider what you could pay for flats in one of the posh new developments in Knightsbridge and Mayfair.”1
