Buyer for England striker Harry Kane’s former mansion must pay £3.4 million after abandoning deal

THE buyer of a seven-bedroom mansion that used to be home to England captain Harry Kane has been ordered to pay more than £3.4 million (S$5.8 million) in compensation for failing to follow through on an agreed purchase. 

The house sits on a road just off Bishops Avenue, a north London street known as “Billionaire’s Row”, and an agreement had been struck that would see it purchased by Jun Zhang for £16.9 million in March 2022, according to a London judgment handed down on Tuesday (Jun 24).

Subsequently, Zhang decided that she would rather live in Notting Hill and didn’t follow through on the purchase. 

Regal BA Limited, a property developer that originally bought the property in 2015, sued Zhang after selling the house for less than £10.2 million in 2024.

Much of the legal wrangling centred on whether Regal could have mitigated its losses by marketing the property more comprehensively, but the developer argued that the market for such properties was deteriorating at the time. 

“If Regal had delayed the sale, the price obtained was more likely to have gone down rather than up,” Judge Richard Hacon said in the ruling. “It is likely that Ms Zhang agreed a price in the sale agreement which was above the market value of the property at the time.”

The house — which has a cinema room, indoor swimming pool, gym and treatment room — was home to Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane from 2018 to 2021.

Properties in the area are highly desirable and often fetch eye-watering sums. Recent sales on the road include a eight bedroom house for £24.5 million and a two-bedroom apartment for £4.2 million, according to property listings firm Rightmove.

However, prime property values in London have been falling in recent years, in part driven by a reluctance of wealthy individuals to move to the UK over changes to the tax treatment of the ultra-wealthy. The court heard from one valuation expert that “the market for this type of high-end property was falling like a stone” in 2024. 

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Buyers complained that the property, called High Trees, lacked privacy and was too exposed to the road to pay anything more than £10 million. One buyer complained that the property lacked an elevator, another that the garden was too small. 

The property was sold in September 2024 for £6.75 million less than was initially agreed between Regal and Zhang to a company run by a businessman called Gabriel Ghersovic. The company that bought the firm is now in administration and Gherscovic has since been bankrupted by one of the lenders with a charge registered against High Trees. 

Zhang’s lawyers argued that the price was at an undervalue to what could have been achieved on the open market. Lawyers at the trial produced evidence on behalf of Zhang that the house was worth £14.75 million, with the difference already covered after she forfeited a £2.5 million deposit.

Zhang was ordered to pay more than £3.4 million in compensation to Regal by Judge Hacon, who said he placed little weight in expert valuation evidence produced at trial.

The compensation includes some legal costs and interest costs, while taking into account the forfeited deposit and a stamp duty contribution that Regal had agreed to pay on completion of the sale. BLOOMBERG