LONDON ATTRACTS CHINESE OLIGARCHS
Chinese tycoons line up to buy London's $92 million 'Gucci mansion', once HQ to the Italian fashion house
ByCHERYL ARCIBAL
Buyers from mainland China and Hong Kong are among those interested in a £55 million (S$92 million), eight-bedroom property known as the Gucci mansion in London’s upmarket Mayfair district, according to the property agent marketing the palatial home.
The 14,000 square-foot house served as the headquarters of the luxury Italian fashion brand and is where designer Tom Ford entertained figures such as Alexander McQueen and the French billionaire François Pinault.
“The three people from mainland China are all ultra-high-net-worth businesspeople , who own large companies in finance, IT and real estate and have families with wives and children,” said Gary Hersham, founding director of Beauchamp Estates.
“Two are looking for a London private home, the third wants a property that can double as a London office or base and a pied-à-terre. At this price level … these assets are both for personal use, entertaining friends and business acquaintances and as a business investment.
“The two Hong Kong buyers are, again, family people, they’re CEOs, one is a retailer, the other works in real estate.”
The property is also available to rent for £40,000 a week.
The potential sale comes hot on the heels of the purchase of an €80 million (US$81.5 million) property with three private beaches on the exclusive Italian island of Sardinia by 33-year-old Chinese woman Nani Wang , who shares the same name as a former board director of a unit of e-commerce giant JD.com.
Mainland companies and the ultra-wealthy Chinese had been active in acquiring trophy assets, but strict curbs on capital outflows first rolled out by Beijing in 2016 crimped their buying spree. The restrictions essentially barred other big-spenders from replicating headline-grabbing deals such as the US$1.95 billion sale of the famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York to Anbang Insurance Group in 2014.
Still, there have been notable acquisitions made by mainland Chinese investors in recent years. Last year, seven penthouses in the TCRW Soho project in London’s West End went for £21.4 million to an unidentified Chinese buyer.
The Gucci mansion, built in the 18th century, is a Grade 1 listed neoclassical building which was chosen to become the luxury brand’s headquarters in 1998 after its head, Maurizio Gucci, was gunned down by a hitman hired by his former wife Patrizia Reggiani in the lobby of Gucci’s Milan headquarters three years earlier.
In 2000, Ford invited McQueen to the house to convince the British fashion designer to join the Gucci group. The property, however, ceased to become Gucci’s headquarters when it was relocated to Cadempino in Switzerland in 2010.
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“Since the start of 2022 there has been a wave of deals for prime London homes priced above £10 million, with the lion’s share of deals done in the £15 million to £25 million price bracket,” said Jeremy Gee, managing director at Beauchamp.
“This year, especially as international buyers have started to return to the capital, the top locations for super-prime deals are Knightsbridge, St John’s Wood, Mayfair, Kensington, Belgravia and Chelsea. The traditional neighbourhoods of the super-rich are once again the locations for the majority of top end deals.”
Other prominent properties to have caught the eye of buyers from the mainland and Hong Kong include penthouses at Principal Tower, in Shoreditch.
“Trophy homes in London offer a unique investment opportunity,” said Christopher Murray, managing director at developer Concord London. “The increase in interest could in part be due to the decline of Covid cases and the relaxation of travel restrictions allowing overseas purchasers to visit and view the properties in person.”
This article was first published in South China Morning Post.
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