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Banker's bargain: £22m knocked off house price
Mira Bar-Hillel13 May 2009
A millionaire banker has bought a Knightsbridge townhouse for £18 million after £22 million was knocked off the asking price.
Raffaele Mincione, who was once engaged to Heather Mills, paid less than half the original price for the newly refurbished house off Sloane Street last month.
The property had been on the market for £40 million for 18 months before its price was slashed this year.
Speaking at his house, Mr Mincione, who had been renting in London for five years, confirmed the purchase but when asked if he felt it was a bargain, he replied: “There's no bargain. In a very uncertain time, there is no bargain.”
Noel De Keyzer, a director at Savills in Sloane Avenue who was not involved in the sale, said it had been the talk of all top London agents for weeks.
“This reduction of £22 million is the biggest property bargain I have ever come across in my career,” he told the Standard.
“The developer rejected offers at around £33 million to £34 million.
“Then came the collapse of Lehman Brothers and everything changed.”
Mr De Keyzer believes that one reason why the house had proved difficult to sell was that it was too “stylised”.
“It looked like it had been designed for a magazine, not for real people,” he said.
“It was so contemporary in design and finish that it resulted in a very cold and sterile interior, and looked rather like a boutique shop in Sloane Street rather than a cosy home. That would put off certain buyers, especially those with families.”
Another problem was that the house was never advertised, and the vendor was very strict as to how he vetted people allowed to view it.
“The developer took the view that if he openly marketed the house, he would never achieve a premium price from some rich Russian oligarch who craved privacy, anonymity and discretion. As a result he probably never gave the house proper exposure to the market place.”
Mr Mincione was a City bond dealer with the Industrial Bank of Japan when he first made headlines as the fiancé of Heather Mills, the model who would later marry and divorce Sir Paul
McCartney.
He was reported to be standing alongside Mills when a police motorbike hit her in Kensington in 1993. Soon after doctors amputated one of her legs. She broke off the engagement after she was discharged from hospital, 20 days before they were due to get married.
The Knightsbridge sale is the subject of a strict confidentiality agreements and the developer refused to confirm or deny it.
Reader views (13)
I keep thinking , where did I go wrong in life ! Genuinely worked my 'butt' off -
( academically & job-wise } and virtually on the bread line . Just can't honestly get my head round £18m for a house ! From where I stand , I know £500,000 will banish my my financial woes forever ;and help those who virtually rely on me for their existence - here and abroad .
Good luck to this mystery buyer I say ; but I hope he has no connection to Capstone/ Southern Pacific Mortgage Lenders to which Lehman Brothers of Sub prime 'fame' is their ' Big Daddy ' and have contributed in no small measure to my present unending financial problems .
Goodluck who ever you are !
- Margaret Cooper, woodford; United Kingdom, 12/05/2009 14:43
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Could you please change the title from Banker Purchases, to British Taxpayers (Thats the working classes) purchase.
- Laurence, Chichester UK, 11/05/2009 17:29
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With a little creative accounting; he could have saved a hundred million; all it needed was to increase the initial asking price to £118.000.000.
There and again with a little more creative accounting; they could have reduced the asking price to £1.000.000; then bragged they conned the buyer out of £17.000.000 more.
Then again; with a little bit more imagination; they could have proved the housing market has finally taken off again; with buyers that had been renting; paying over the top to get their feet on the housing ladder etc.
When I look at our elite; I know I should have been a Banker or Estate Agent; this Con Game is a doddle.
He could have got six houses in Tony Blair’s Square, on the other side of Hyde Park, for the same money; Tony’s only cost £3.000.000.
I wonder if that is Tony’s second home?
- Mickyinlondon, london, 11/05/2009 17:27
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Not long before an MP rents it as a sixth house and adds it to his expense account.
- David, LONDON, 11/05/2009 17:06
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40M or 18m, what's the difference, both are ridiculous values. Just stop and think for a minute, look at the photo, is that property really worth so much? I would value that in a sain world between 2m and 3m.
Why do people accept property should cost so much. Why are there people out there ramping prices up? Who would really rather buy a 4 bed detached for 500k rather than 100k? We live with such debt it is total madness. I feel sorry for the kids of today, a lifetime of debt awaits them and if I am not mistaken you can see it in their faces. I for one hope the market crashes at least another 25% and that in truth will still leave property over priced. By the way I have been a property investor for more than 25 years, and I think the market is crazy. Do people realise prices went up 190% in just 10 years!
- T Miller, Oxted, UK, 11/05/2009 16:48
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May be the person who won £110 million in Spain could buy this London pad.
- Kathy, London, 11/05/2009 16:30
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What absolute nonsense!
I believe my home is worth around £1m but I will put it on the market for £4m. In 6 months time when it hasn't sold because the asking price is stupid I will then drop it to £1m. You can then run the headline '75% HOUSE PRICE DROP IN 6 MONTHS!!!'
The Estate Agents can then make hay with my 'bargain' - desperate to sell so 75% off!
- Peter Parker, London, 11/05/2009 14:44
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Don't anyone tell Heather he had 18m to spend - she'll be breaking the door down trying to get back together ....
- Marianne, SW France/London, 11/05/2009 14:40
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Agree with Mincione: Correcting what was a massive over-valuation hardly makes it a bargain.
(By the way, I think you mean paid 'less' than half the original asking price...)
- John, London, 11/05/2009 13:55
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Simon
planning permission will shortly be granted for an underground garden I expect.
- Kedge, marlboro wilts, 11/05/2009 13:33
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At 18 million its still 100% over valued! Utterly crazy! Its a 5 bedroom house! Nuts!
- James Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove, NY, 11/05/2009 12:28
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A £40 million house going for £18 million.
Do the agents have other properties with huge reductions. Or maybe we should keep away from them in case they try to rip us off like they tried with this house which eventually went for half its original value.
- Mr. S.Port, London, 11/05/2009 11:04
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He has paid £18 million yet still doesn't get a front garden?
- Simon Ellis, London, 11/05/2009 10:18
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