Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, of the Qatari ruling family, has just splashed out on a $270-million stand-alone mansion, at 10 Harkin Street in the heart of London’s Belgravia, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. The Sheikh’s new 20-plus-bedroom pied-a-terre is one of those rarest-of-the-rare listed houses in London, set back from the road on an acre of the most prime real estate in the world, that little jammed-up triangle of earth between Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. The Sheikh’s plans to refurbish the mansion — with parking for 32 vehicles, a basement cinema, and the obligatory gym with a couple of plunge pools — have been estimated at another $190-plus million, which, arguably, will value it as London’s most expensive private home, pushing a $465-million price tag.
The Napoleonic-era pile was originally built by noted architect Sir Robert Smirke in 1810 for the fifth Earl of Oxford, expanded in 1824 and subsequently in 1912 for a series of owners. Sheikh al-Thani bought it from the renowned Barclay brothers, the very agile property and media magnates (owners of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph) who, themselves, had snapped up the old place quite recently, in 2013, for a reported $44-million. What the London brokers call ‘stamp duty,’ or tax, on the Sheikh’s transaction has been estimated to be grazing the bottom side of $30 million.
And then, just to give the deal that special London twist: there is the $44-million lease that the Sheikh also had to buy from the Barclays.
Which, to those familiar with with the many quirks of super-prime London real estate, is the interesting trick about this deal: Although the mansion is, technically, the Sheikh’s, the ground under the house does not belong to the al-Thanis, nor to the Barclays who sold the house, nor to any of the titled nobility who had it built in the Napoleonic era. The ground belongs to the Duke of Westminster, aka, Hugh Grosvenor, 22, Britain’s $9-billion man, who is very much not interested in giving up any of his billions in London property, but who does gladly rent it much of it out to appropriately-heeled lessors. The Duke owns the eponymous Grosvenor Square, for instance. And a few other multi-million-dollar baubles.
And that’s the other most interesting trick about this deal: When they bought the house in 2013, the Barclays also had to buy a then-40-year lease, which they promptly re-negotiated with the Duke, extending it to a 150-year lease. In short, that’s why the current lease is worth $40-million. It’s super-prime, and super-duper long. Bottom line: For the privilege of having his mansion on ground owned by the Dukes of Westminster, Sheikh al-Thani will be paying an annual rent of some $22,000. A pittance, against his $200-million renovation, and certainly a pittance to the Sheikh.
But still: essentially, it’s his central Belgravia condo fee, courtesy of the Dukes of Westminster.