The Billionaire row, a row of mansions in London will soon be demolished over the next three years. Bishops Avenue which is also known as Billionaires Row is located in one of the richest streets in the capital with homes coming up to £350 million.
It is also currently home to newspaper magnate Richard Desmond who is a longstanding resident of the row as well as being home to several sheiks and sultans.
The late Princess Diana and her two sons were also fond of the street as they used to visit King Constantine II of Greece who lived in Hampstead. The problem is in the last 10 years or so the opulence of the place has been tarnished by families buying flashy mansions on the private road and leaving them to rot.
In fact, one royal Saudi Arabian family once bought 10 homes in the Billionaire row during the Gulf War and never even set foot in any of them.
Bishops Avenue on Billionaire row
“Bishops Avenue is an area that they’re always developing because a lot of owners of the houses are overseas sellers, some of them don’t even come back to the UK so the houses got very dated and start falling apart and then they end up selling them,” said one real estate agent.
According to a report by City A.M the row of abandoned mansions was bought for £70 million more than 10 years ago with planning still going on to transform them into a combination of 10 apartments and homes. Another five mansions are also set to be torn down and transformed into 350 homes.
Estate agent, Trevor Abrahamsohn said, “It’s the objective and aspiration of all town planners, that they want a variety of people in every row, they don’t want it all at one end of the demographic scale or the other.”
Despite that however the new homes don’t come cheap either as they are expected to sell for about £1 million each.
Another property developer, Valourn will spend £200 million to transform the Oak Lodge mansion which caught fire last summer into 30 flats while luxury developer Riverstone will build 96 retirement flats at the Barons Court mansion at 56, The Bishops Avenue which will open in 2025.
Chief operating officer of estate agents Goldschmidt & Howlands Bambos Haralambous says that although there is still demand for those estates it is tempered by a cautious investor mindset amidst a shifting global economic and political landscape.
“Scrutiny on the lifestyles of the ultra wealthy and concerns about property ownership transparency have also shaped buyer sentiment,” said Haralambous.
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The photo above is from Wikipedia