Mittal: No love lost?

London, Feb. 17: For sale: 11-bedroom mansion, The Summer Palace, in The Bishops Avenue, otherwise known as “Millionaires’ Row”, on the Hampstead-Highgate border in north London; current owner: Lakshmi Mittal; guide price: £40 million.

Since there are no restrictions on foreigners purchasing property in the UK, anyone in India wanting to buy Mittal’s last house in The Bishops Avenue should get in touch with Trevor Abrahamson, the managing director and founder of Glentree Estates, who is handling the sale.

“London is now the capital of the moneyed world; the very rich consider it their second home,” said Abrahamson, who specialises in representing the very rich.

“The Bishops Avenue is a global name,” he added. “It is well known to the international wealthy, and for them to have a house here is the ultimate status symbol.”

He could add that the street name is preceded by the definite article to signify its special status.

Two years ago, when Mittal “upscaled” and spent a record £70 million by moving into a 12-bedroom residence in “billionaires’ row” in Kensington Palace Gardens in west London, his friends wondered what he would do with The Summer Palace he and his wife Usha were leaving behind.

Offering it to Bollywood as a stage set or renting it out for Indian weddings were not very serious suggestions.

The Summer Palace, built in 1991, had at one stage been placed on the market by its Indian developer, Ashok Tandon, for a reported £20 million. But after a crash in the property market in Britain, Mittal was able to pick it up after he arrived in London from Indonesia in 1995 for about £6.5 million.

At a personal level, his daughter Vanisha married Amit Bhatia, the son of the sister of Tandon’s wife, Gita, in 2004.

Property in The Bishops Avenue, a favourite with Indian businessmen who have done well in Britain plus cash-rich foreigners looking for an investment in the UK, costs £2,000 a square foot. This compares with £4,000-5,000 a square foot in Kensington Palace Gardens, where the Indian high commissioner has his residence (though this is smaller than Mittal’s place across the tree-lined avenue).

Two years ago, Abrahamson had valued The Summer Palace at £20million. Now, he is hoping to attract twice that price in a property market that is said to be in a dip.

Abrahamson, who was the broker in the recent sale of a £40-million mansion next door to The Summer Palace, is optimistic about finding a buyer.

“To an international buyer, the name The Bishops Avenue is worth 20 per cent more than a comparable house anywhere else,” he claimed. “No one ever lost money buying in The Bishops Avenue.”

It has been pointed out that a sizeable proportion of the houses in The Bishops Avenue appear to be “empty and unloved”. Windows are barred, drives are unswept and weeds are creeping through. The only visible signs of habitation are the security guards “lurking in the shadows like feral cats”.

But Abrahamson has an explanation: “A lot of the owners have houses all over the world and like to have a big house in London just as an investment. They are not worried about leaving their houses empty. The property will always make money.”

Properties in this street will always be wanted whatever the state of the market.”

A senior member of the Indian business community in London agreed.

“For good properties, there’s always a market,” he observed.