£38 million Belgravia mansion becomes first super prime sale of the year

An eight-bedroom Belgravia mansion has become London’s first super prime sale of the year after selling for £38 million.

The Grade II-listed townhouse on Wilton Crescent, one of the country’s most exclusive streets, sold to a young UK businessman who plans to use the property as his London home. The sale also included a mews house on Kinnerton Street to the rear of the property.

According to investors Fairway Capital, there were four other bidders, mostly international, who were looking at properties in London over Christmas. The property was listed for sale in May 2024, but both the buyer and other bidders had chosen to wait for the UK general election and autumn budget before starting negotiations.

“We are delighted to confirm the sale of the turnkey mansion on Wilton Crescent in Belgravia, which we believe is London’s first super-prime residential deal of 2025. It follows £120 million of resales that Fairway Capital secured over the last few months of 2024 to buyers from the UK, Middle East and Asia,” says George Brooksbank, Fairway Capital’s CEO.

“With the UK general election and 2024 autumn budget out of the way there has been a noticeable return to the prime central London market of discerning buyers over the last few months.”

The house, which fronts onto the crescent garden, was built in 1827-8 by Thomas Cubitt and William Howard Seth-Smith as a private home for the Ponsonby family, the Earls of Bessborough. Guests included Lord Palmerston, Lord Randolph Churchill and former diplomat and statesman George Villiers, the fourth Earl of Clarendon.

Between 1908 and 1912, the building, like others on the crescent, were refaced in Portland stone by Balfour and Turner, and the mansions modernised with new lighting and plumbing.

Fairway Capital acquired the Wilton Crescent property in 2021 after its previous owner, the former billionaire investor Glenn Maud, was declared bankrupt. Maud had spent £6 million on lavish interiors designed by Robert Kime, decorator to King Charles.

Maud once owned some of the world’s most expensive buildings, including the Citigroup tower in Canary Wharf and Ciudad Santander in Madrid. In 2020, he lost a lengthy legal battle with the Libyan Investment Authority, related to the financing and ownership of the Santander headquarters.

Maud’s remaining assets —including the Wilton Crescent mansion— were sold off, and the Kime-curated contents of the Belgravia property were auctioned by Christie’s in 2020, generating more than £2 million.

Alongside developers Leconfield Property Group, Fairway Capital undertook an extensive refurbishment of the 198-year-old building, which included restoring the cornicing to the principal rooms, reproducing the Louis XVI fireplaces and installing custom-designed Versailles and herringbone-style parquet flooring.

The refurbishment also added a vast new basement with staff facilities and a private health spa, swimming pool, treatment room, steam room and changing rooms.

In total, the property covers 9,000 square feet over six floors, connected by the original cantilevered staircase and a newly installed passenger lift. The two-storey mews house, meanwhile, has two bedrooms, a kitchen, reception room, bathroom and garage.

According to Fairway Capital, the buyer was looking for a turnkey home and was attracted to the size of the property, as well as its wellness facilities and passenger lift. He plans to divide his time between the Belgravia mansion and his home in the country.

The sale follows that of an apartment in Mayfair’s former Rolls Royce headquarters at the end of last year, which sold for £26.25 million to a “young international buyer”. The project was also financed by Fairway Capital.

To Brooksbank, this is a promising sign: “Buyer confidence has returned and we are looking forward to a successful and busy 2025.”