The purchase of a luxury London home by a Chinese property magnate is set to break the country's house-price record. According to sources close to the transaction, the family of Cheung Chun Kiu has agreed to purchase a 45-room mansion in London for a staggering £210 million pounds, or roughly $262 million.
The home, which is located at 2-8a Ruland Gate, overlooks London's Hyde Park. The purchase of the home has been seen as a clear indication of how London's weak currency has attracted the world's wealthiest to make substantial investments. If the transaction goes through, it could represent a turning point in the UK's embattled luxury property market.
The price the family is willing to pay for the property would be the largest ever paid for a home in the UK. The £210 million price tag is nearly double the £140 million reportedly paid by an unknown buyer for a country house in Oxfordshire more than 10 years ago.
Outside of the UK, the purchase would be one of the largest luxury home transactions in the world, on par with the $238 million paid by Citadel founder Ken Griffin for his penthouse in Manhattan, New York.
Sitting on the property is a seven-story white stucco house with 62,000 square feet of living space. The building itself was built in the 1830s, originally as a terrace of four townhouses. It was then remodeled in the 1980s to become a single Italianate private palace.
According to sources close to the property transaction, Cheung and his family have yet to make a decision whether to use the huge building as their private family home or convert it into luxury apartments.
Cheung, who is the founder and chairman of CC Land Holdings, has been actively purchasing properties in the UK since 2016. Cheung's Hong Kong-listed property firm recently purchased the Leadenhall Building in Britain, located in London's financial district.
Industry experts have speculated that Cheung will likely choose to convert the palatial home into luxury apartments. The assumption is based on the fact that apartment prices in the area have recently skyrocketed. A project by Peninsula London near the building is estimated to be worth more than £700 million. Peninsula London essentially purchased an older home and redeveloped it into a complex of luxury apartments, a strategy that Cheung could potentially emulate.
The property is very close to the famous One Hyde Part luxury residential project and Harrods department store. It was also once the home of the former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri. Other famous tenants of the huge luxury building included the late crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
