A lavish townhouse has become Britain’s most expensive new terraced home – after selling for a staggering £35 million.
Blackwood House is part of Cornwall Terrace, an exclusive row of eight renovated terraced properties overlooking Regent’s Park in London.
It is the first property to be sold in the development and boasts four reception rooms, six bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and stunning views over the park.
The restored Grade 1 property has a home entertainment suite, private gym and health spa, an armour-plated ”Bentley-sized” garage and a separate mews house for staff.
It took 83,000 man hours to develop and covers almost 11,000 sq ft – with each square foot costing nearly £3,500.
The £35 million price tag carried a whopping stamp duty bill of £1.4 million.
But new owners of Blackwood House haven’t finished spending yet – they are expected to splash out a further £1.5 to £2 million furnishing and decorating the property and have hired British Italian designer Nicola Fontanella for the job.
Oakmayne, the company which developed Cornwall Terrace, refused to confirm the buyer’s identity but it’s rumoured to be a Middle Eastern royal family.
Cornwall Terrace was designed by Royal architect Sir John Nash as part of the Prince Regent’s – later King George IV – plans for the 19th century masterpiece Regent’s Park.
Overlooking the park’s rowing lake, Cornwall Terrace’s double-fronted mansions belonged to the British nobility for 150 years before being occupied by commercial concerns.
The terrace was purchased two-and-a-half years ago with the development supervised by English Heritage and The Crown Estate.
After being developed, Cornwall Terrace is the most expensive row of terraced houses in the world.
At £35 million, Blackwood House is the most expensive terraced property ever sold in the UK and is thought to be London’s second most expensive new build after Toprak Mansion in Hampstead, which sold for £50 million in 2008.
The average sale price for a home in London is £352,000 – making Blackwood House the equivalent of selling nearly 100 standard homes in the capital.
For the same price you could buy 160,000 Louis Vuitton handbags, 22 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport cars or Liverpool’s new striker Andy Carroll.
But despite the huge outlay, the new owner will sleep easy at night knowing they’re in the City of Westminster – where residents pay the capital’s second lowest council tax.
