Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has sold a mansion block in Mayfair to another member of the ruling family in a deal The National understands to be worth £39 million.
Sheikh Mohammed sold the Grade II-listed building to a fellow Qatari royal in October, in one of London’s most expensive home deals in the past year.
The National understands the property, at Balfour Place, was converted into flats in 1991. The block was originally bought by the Qatari Prime Minister in 2021, for a sum close to the asking price at the time of about £45 million.
The luxury property deal was understood to have been negotiated directly between the fellow royals.
The Qatari government's media office did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Sheikh Mohammed, a familiar face on the diplomatic circuit, was appointed Prime Minister of the gas-rich Gulf state last year, while continuing as Foreign Minister.
He has played an important role in discussions between Qatar and European countries about the supply of natural gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended energy markets.
The high-end property market in the UK capital has been relatively strong even as global central banks have raised interest rates and Britain prepares to toughen its tax rules for rich foreigners.
Still, some sellers have had to lower their ambitions when it comes to price.
British billionaire Bobby Arora sold a luxury townhouse in Belgravia – a neighbouring district to Mayfair – for £23.5 million at the end of last year, at a discount of roughly 30 per cent of the price paid in 2013.
In January, sold properties across London’s most prestigious districts dipped below 90 per cent of their asking prices for the first time since early 2019, according to researcher LonRes.
Qatari elites have snapped up so much real estate in Mayfair over the years that the area has been nicknamed “Little Doha” by some estate agents.
The former US embassy in the area is being redeveloped into a luxury hotel and apartments by Qatari Diar.
Abdulhadi Mana Al Hajri, owner of the Ritz Hotel and brother-in-law of Qatar’s Emir, bought a £37.5 million townhouse a short walk from Sheikh Mohammed’s former home last year.
In 2023, Mayfair was one of the most popular neighbourhoods for £5 million-plus deals in London, making up 8 per cent of these transactions, according to broker Savills Plc.
But some property owners – including other Qatari royals and the Al Khayyat family, which owns large parts of industry in the Gulf state – have considered selling mansions in London over the past 12 months.
UAE buyers featured in the top bracket of those purchasing prime central London property last year, according to research that showed the market topped £1 billion in 2023.
A report from super-prime property agent Beauchamp Estates found there were 54 sales of homes each worth more than £15 million ($18.9 million), amounting to £1.3 billion, sold in central London in the period.
About 60 per cent of them were bought by people from the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China, who together purchased about £780 million worth of luxury property in the UK capital.
The UK's 10 most expensive streets – in pictures
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now
Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.
The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.
1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):
a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33
b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.
2. For those who have worked more than five years
c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.
Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
