The white palazzo-style building, which has 45 bedrooms, is being discreetly offered to a select group of wealthy international buyers.
A reported price tag of £300 million would smash Britain’s existing house-price record of £140 million, which was achieved on a 300 year-old house in Henley-on-Thames last year.
The 60,000 square feet house is the former residence of Rafiq Hariri, the late Prime Minister of Lebanon, and is located at 2 to 8a Rutland Gate in Knightsbridge, equidistant between Harrods and the Royal Albert Hall.
The building, which is rumoured to contain millions of pounds worth of gold leaf decoration, is on the site of the old German Consulate General’s office. It was redeveloped in the 1980s and turned into four separate flats before it was converted into one house by Mr Hariri.
The asking price shows just how far adrift the London property market is from the rest of Britain. According to Halifax, the average house in the UK costs £160,250, meaning that whoever buys the mansion would be buying the equivalent of 1,872 typical homes. » | James Hall, Consumer Affairs Editor | Thursday, September 13, 2012
