- A Hong Kong real-estate developer is in contract to buy a London mansion for about $262 million, the brokerage firm for the sale confirmed to Business Insider.
- If it closes at that price, it will be the most expensive residential sale in the UK ever.
- The seller of the home is the estate of Saudi Arabia's late Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, Joe Wallace reported for The Wall Street Journal.
- Political unrest in Hong Kong may be boosting Chinese interest in UK real estate, according to the Journal.
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Hong Kong real-estate investor Cheung Chung Kiu is in contract to buy a sprawling London mansion for about $262 million, Beauchamp Estates, the firm brokering the sale, confirmed to Business Insider.
The sale, which is expected to close in the next few weeks, would shatter the record for the most expensive residential sale in the UK, which is currently held by the sale of a country manor in Oxfordshire for £140 million ($183 million) in 2011, according to Mansion Global.
It would also surpass the current record in the US, set in January 2019 when hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin dropped $238 million on a penthouse spread in a luxury tower near Central Park in New York City.
The 62,000-square-foot mansion at 2-8a Rutland Gate was originally four homes before being combined into one massive building with 45 rooms. The sprawling residence overlooks Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, an upscale neighborhood in central London. It's a 10-minute walk from Harrods, one of the world's most iconic department stores.
Cheung is buying the property from the estate of Saudi Arabia's late crown prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, Joe Wallace reported for The Wall Street Journal. The mansion was previously owned by the former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri, who, upon his death, gifted it to the Saudi crown prince, according to the Guardian.
The home was once listed for £300 million ($391 million).
In 2016, Forbes called Cheung a "rising star" in the Hong Kong property business and estimated his net worth at $900 million. His company CC Land Holdings owns the Leadenhall Building, a 740-foot skyscraper in central London.
The real-estate tycoon hasn't yet decided whether he will live in the mansion himself or turn the building into apartments, a spokesperson told the Journal. Cheung's spokesperson could not be reached by Business Insider.
According to Beauchamp, Cheung's purchase of the mansion is a sign that foreign money is starting to flow back into the UK real-estate market as international buyers take advantage of a weak British pound. And political unrest in Hong Kong may be boosting interest from Chinese buyers in particular, according to the Journal.