John Griffin, the founder of London taxi company Addison Lee, experienced what can only be described as a bad day after selling his London mansion overlooking Regent’s Park, leaving him with a loss of about £9.2 million, according to a report by The Telegraph.
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what → experience → Telegraph
He bought the six-bedroom house on Hanover Terrace in 2013 for £20.7 million.
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He → buy → million
Thirteen years later, the mansion was sold for £11.5 million.
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mansion → sell → million
For a man who once sold his taxi firm for a fortune, this property gamble wasn’t quite worth it.
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gamble → sell → fortune
Sold for nearly half the price he paid 13 years ago
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he → sell → price
The mansion sits on Hanover Terrace, in the heart of Regent’s Park.
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mansion → sit → Park
Part of a Regency-era row, the six-bedroom mansion was designed by the architect John Nash.
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mansion → design → architect
The mansion was sold at the beginning of October for a 44% discount, according to a Bloomberg report.
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mansion → sell → report
Griffin bought the house in the same year he sold his taxi firm, Addison Lee, to the Carlyle Group for about £300 million.
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he → buy → million
He paid £20.7 million for the mansion in 2013, filings show.
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filings → pay → 2013
The house was first put on the market at a much higher price.
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house → put → price
Multiple reports suggested the mansion was listed in 2021 for £32 million.
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mansion → suggest → million
Even after several price cuts, it didn’t find a buyer.
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it → find → buyer
The property was taken off the market before returning this year at £13.5 million.
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property → take → million
The final sale price came in below that figure, reports say.
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reports → come → figure
The sale comes a month after he lost a drawn-out battle with UK tax authorities.
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he → come → authorities
For years, Griffin has been fighting HMRC, the UK tax authority, over his tax residency.
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Griffin → fight → residency
He argued that he should qualify for non-domiciled status between 2013 and 2020.
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he → argue → 2013
That status would have kept income earned abroad outside the scope of UK tax.
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status → keep → tax
But in September, a tribunal ruled against him.
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tribunal → rule → him
The sale was agreed before that ruling and completed less than a month after it, according to a person familiar with the process.
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sale → agree → process
It is unclear whether the verdict affected the final price.
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verdict → affect → price
Griffin’s sale fits a wider pattern.
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sale → fit → pattern
London’s prime property market has suffered in recent months amid tax changes and economic and political uncertainty.
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market → suffer → changes
Estate agent JLL’s residential research data shows that 457 homes worth more than £5 million were sold in central London between July and September, The National News reported.
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News → show → July
Many of the city’s priciest properties have been hit by these tax changes and economic and political shocks.
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Many → hit → changes
Property analysts LonRes told the publication that the prime London market saw a slowdown this summer, with average sale prices 7.9% lower in July than a year earlier and 5.7% lower than during the pre-Covid period.
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prices → tell → period
A property in Notting Hill sold for £25.9 million during the same period, even as prices fell around it.
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prices → sell → it
“Adding a new prime minister and continuing global uncertainty to the mix has resulted in a subdued prime London market, with the super-prime segment particularly affected.
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segment → add → market
The key indicator is simply the number of transactions relative to new instructions, under offers and existing stock – it remains stubbornly low.
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it → exist → offers
Uncertainty and a lack of urgency, driven in part by low expectations of future price growth, continue to hinder any potential recovery,” LonRes told the outlet.
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LonRes → drive → outlet
“At the top end of the market, fewer people need to buy or sell, so the issues are amplified.
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issues → need → market
Last year, we saw a prolonged slowdown as pre-budget tax speculation started in the summer and carried on all the way to the end of the year,” it added.
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it → see → year
In some areas, the slowdown has had little effect.
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slowdown → have → effect
Earlier this year, The Holme in Regent’s Park sold for a profit of about £56 million.
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Holme → sell → million
The house had been taken out of receivership less than two years earlier for £139 million.
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house → take → million
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