Buyer flips London mega mansion for £56 million mark up

[LONDON] The mystery buyer who acquired a mansion in London’s Regent’s Park at the end of 2024 has sold the property for about £195 million (S$334.3 million) in one of the UK’s highest value sales of all time. 

The Holme, a 40-room house whose neighbours include the US Ambassador, was sold to another unnamed buyer for about 40 per cent more than the £139 million acquisition price achieved almost 18 months earlier, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction who asked not to be identified as the deal is confidential. 

Once owned by members of the Saudi royal family, the Holme is a white stucco villa located next to London Zoo and a boating lake in Regent’s Park. Its name is derived from a Saxon word referring to a small island or elevated piece of land next to a body of water. 

The property, dubbed by the BBC as the “ultimate desirable residence” when it was marketed in 1998, counts the US ambassador’s residence at Winfield House among its short list of neighbours. 

It was previously owned by a Guernsey-based company Quendon, which listed children of Prince Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud as its beneficial owners.

Brokers were appointed to sell the Holme on behalf of creditors to the company in early 2023, eventually agreeing a deal that saw it acquired by an entity called Zedra Trust Company (UK). The beneficial owner of that vehicle was not disclosed. 

While the top end of London’s housing market has been beset by a protracted slump caused by higher taxes, the sale is the latest in a recent flurry of large deals for some of the city’s most sought-after residences.

The £195 million price tag is surpassed by only a handful of transactions, including the April sale of Nick Candy’s family home in London’s exclusive Chelsea district for more than £270 million. 

Candy is also in the final stages of the potential sale of his penthouse suite in Knightsbridge’s exclusive One Hyde Park development.

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Other recent deals include Nigerian businessman Femi Otedola’s purchase of a mansion in St John’s Wood district – a short walk from Regent’s Park – for £53 million. 

Marcus O’Brien of UK Sotheby’s International Realty brokered the deal. O’Brien declined to comment. BLOOMBERG