How middle

Release time：2024-05-21 13:42:03 Source：Horizon Herald news portal

Middle-aged multimillionaires are fuelling London's booming mansion market, as the average age for buying a £25million home is now 41 — down 12 years in a decade.

Middle Eastern royals, Indian businessmen and tech billionaires are just some of the buyers purchasing a trophy home in Britain's capital, according to auction house Sotheby's.

A total of 54 homes priced at more than £15million were sold in the UK last year, according to the agency Beauchamp Estates, worth a combined £1.3billion.

The biggest purchase last year was by 'vaccine prince' Adar Poonawalla, who reached a deal with Dominika Kulczyk, daughter of Poland's richest man Jan Kulczyk, to buy Aberconway House — a 25,000 square foot home from the 1920s near Hyde Park.

The £138million price tag made the property the second-most expensive home ever sold in London and the biggest deal of the year.

The impressive red-brick residence is named after Henry Duncan McLaren, aka Baron Aberconway, a turn-of-the-century industrialist who built the Grosvenor Square mansion.

Adar Poonawalla bought Aberconway House - a 25,000 square foot home from the 1920s near Hyde Park

The price tag makes the property the second-most expensive home ever sold in London and the biggest deal of the year, according to luxury property agents

The Boltons in Kensington, London, are a pair of crescents which form the centre-piece of a fashionable residential area in Kensington. Number 22 (pictured) was on the market in 2017 for £57million

The next largest sale of 2023, according to agents, was the £113million purchase of Hanover Lodge. 

Essar Group billionaire Ravi Ruia's family office bought the mansion in Regent's Park, which had been linked to Russian property investor Andrey Goncharenko. 

It is understood London appeals to the super rich because of Britain's language, its location in Europe, its legal system and world-renowned universities and schools.

A row of houses in Elgin Crescent, in Notting Hill, London, where a terraced house was previously on sale for over £12 million

London appeals to the super rich because of Britain's language, location in Europe, it legal system and renowned universities and schools. Pictured: Grand Victorian mansions in Kensington 

A period property in Islington, London which was pictured on September 7, 2019 

According to The Sunday Times, middle-aged billionaires are looking for high-tech homes that have tennis courts which can transform into dancefloors, as well as expensive art and luxurious cars.  

Not only do they want fixers to provide the homes, but with all the inner furnishings as well — and meeting the demand is causing a battle between the capital's high-end estate agents.

The Sunday Times revealed that Sotheby's will launch a 'billionaire' division next week which will be run by Marcus O'Brien, 31, who negotiated Britain's most expensive home sale — Rutland Gate.

The Knightsbridge property was bought by Chinese tycoon owner Hui Ka Yan before his company had to be bailed out by the Chinese government.

Originally built as four separate family houses, the grand seven-storey, stucco-fronted residence runs from 2-8A Rutland Gate, Knightsbridge

Property tycoon Hui Ka Yan, 63, secretly financed the purchase before his property company had to be bailed out by the Chinese government

The 45-bedroom mansion was formerly owned by a Saudi prince and a Lebanese prime minister, but was bought from the Saudi royals by the Chinese property tycoon for £205million.

There are just a handful of families in the world who can afford to buy, refurbish and maintain the mega-mansion.  

Speaking to The Sunday Times, O'Brien said that today's buyers were 'far trendier and less stuffy' than their predecessors and wanted colourful homes in Notting Hill in comparison to those in Belgravia. 

He said a lot of the people in the market at the moment tended to be closer to his age because money is becoming younger.

Related articles