The mystery owner of one of London’s most expensive properties, which counts London Zoo and the US ambassador's residence as neighbours, has sold it for a profit of about £56 million ($75 million) in less than two years.
The owner has never been publicly identified but The National understands them to be a US-Chinese billionaire seeking privacy and security. They bought The Holme in Regent’s Park out of receivership for around £139 million at the end of 2024. It is thought the owner intended to use the stucco villa as corporate offices with homes included, but chose to flip it instead.
According to Financial Times reports at the time, the 2024 purchase was made by a UK subsidiary of corporate service firm Zedra, which is incorporated in Luxembourg with headquarters in Geneva, and runs pensions in the UK and trusts on behalf of high-wealth clients.
The Holme has now been sold for around £195 million, one of London’s – and the UK’s – largest property sales. It was never publicly listed for sale.
The new buyer's identity is also shrouded in secrecy, but they are believed to be American. Bloomberg reported that the unnamed buyer paid about 40 per cent more than the £139 million acquisition price in 2024.
Marcus O’Brien, of UK Sotheby’s International Realty, brokered the deal. Mr O’Brien declined to comment to Bloomberg.
Built in 1818, the 40-bedroom mansion, near the park's boating lake, covers 2,694 square metres and is set in 1.6 hectares of gardens. Its name is derived from a Saxon word for a small island or elevated piece of land next to a body of water. The property was on the market with an asking price as high as £250 million.
The mansion, marketed for £30 million in 1988 and described as “possibly the world’s most expensive home”, was later owned from the early 1990s by Guernsey-based company Quendon, which listed the children of Prince Khaled bin Sultan Al Saud as its beneficial owners.
The anonymity of the purchaser of The Holme comes despite attempts by the UK government to bring greater transparency to the top end of the property market, where ultimate ownership has often been hidden behind trusts or shell companies.
A register of overseas entities was created following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in an effort to remove the veil of secrecy.
Top of the market
The top of London’s housing market has been beset by a protracted slump caused by higher taxes, but the sale is the latest in a flurry of large deals for some of the city’s most desirable homes. The £195 million price tag is surpassed by only a handful of transactions, including the April sale of Nick Candy’s family home in the exclusive Chelsea district for more than £270 million to Suneil Setiya, the founder of Quadrature Capital.
Becky Fatemi, executive partner at Sotheby's International Realty, told The National that the sale of “mega trophy assets” highlighted the market for properties above £100 million remained strong, regardless of economic conditions.
“At the very top end, buyers are not simply purchasing square footage, they are acquiring rarity,” she said. “The value is in those properties that it would be impossible to replicate.”
She said the penthouse at One Hyde Park, listed at £175 million, is likely to be the next major trophy asset to be snapped up.
“Opportunities to acquire a penthouse of this calibre are exceptionally rare, and for global ultra-high-net-worth buyers seeking a legacy purchase, there is nothing else comparable in the world.”
In 2020, 2-8a Rutland Gate was sold by the estate of the late Saudi crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz for £210 million.
In 2023, Indian billionaire Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute, paid £138 million for Aberconway House in Mayfair after renting it for several years.
At the start of this year, a Bayswater penthouse overlooking London’s Hyde Park was bought by AI pioneer Igor Babuschkin in a deal worth about £60 million.
Other recent deals include Nigerian businessman Femi Otedola’s purchase of a mansion in the St John’s Wood district – a short walk from Regent’s Park – for £53 million.
Forty-one luxury properties priced above £15 million ($20 million) sold in London in 2025, in a flurry of sales between the UK and the Middle East.
The Beauchamp Estates annual billionaire buyers’ survey found buyers from the Middle East accounted for 25 per cent of all super-prime sales.
