Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has reportedly purchased one of the most expensive homes in London.
A mansion built on the site of the BT Earls Court telephone exchange was bought in November by a company with ties to the UAE president.
The Chelsea house sold for £65 million, making it one of a handful of London’s most expensive homes that changed hands last year. The most expensive, a £138 million Mayfair mansion, was bought by Indian billionaire and vaccine fortune heir Adar Poonawalla.
London saw 52 homes sold above the $10 million mark (£7.9 million) in Q4 of 2023, according to the Knight Frank Super-Prime Intelligence report, tying with New York for second place after Dubai. London’s super prime market is predicted to rise again in 2024, after bottoming out at the end of 2023.
The UAE President’s new purchase is one of a development of three identical mansions built between 2004 and 2006 in SW10. One of the brick villas sold for £51 million in 2015 to a Bermuda-registered company called Mount Ltd.
The house, which featured nine bedrooms, a glass lift, and a basement with a swimming pool and cinema, was one of the most expensive new build homes ever sold in London. Developers Stephen West, Paul Daniel and Giles Mackay bought the old telephone exchange site for £13 million in 2001.
Mackay went on to live in one of the three houses, although a dispute between the multimillionaire and contractors Walter Lilly & Co ended in the high court, with the judge ruling in favour of the builders.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known as MBZ, was officially elected president of the UAE in 2022 after the death of his brother, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.MBZ is part of the Al Nahyan royal family, one of the world’s wealthiest monarchies, which is believed to own billions of pounds worth of property in London.
In 2014, Abu Dhabi’s ruling family was estimated to be the second largest landowner in Mayfair after the Duke of Westminster.
His late brother is understood to have amassed a portfolio of £1.2 billion of property in the capital.
An Abu Dhabi-backed fund, majority-owned by MBZ’s brother and vice-president of the UAE Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is currently involved in a deal to take over the Telegraph Media Group. The UAE vice-president is also the owner of Manchester City Football Club. Last month the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund was reportedly considering buying a stake in London’s Heathrow airport.
