Friday, February 29, 2008

Hoo-righ-ah Who?

BUYER: Olena Franchuk
LOCATION: No. 17 Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, London
PRICE: £80,000,000
SIZE: Big.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama predicts that in 36 hours or less no one will remember or even care whether Hourieh Peramam, the recent and alleged buyer of the gaudy Toprak Mansion, is an actual person or some kind of bizarre ploy for marketing the uglee-ass pile on The Bishop's Avenue in North London, because £41,000,000 is loose change for Olena Franchuk, the new and undisputed queen of hideously expensive London real estate.

Hold on to your Vivienne Westwood britches bitches because according to a report in the Daily Mail, the Ukrainian bizness woman and pal of Miss Sir Elton John is believed to have dumped a hair raising £80,000,000 on a huge detached house in the hoity toity Kensington area of South-West London. Yes, you read that correctly kids, that's £80,000,000, a breathtaking 158,756,800 clams to those of us across the pond in the good ol' U-nited States where a good New York City townhouse can still be snapped up for well under $50,000,000.

Contracts are reported to have been exchanged in the last few weeks and if the purchase is fully executed, the sale price of the 5 story house on Upper Phillimore Gardens will shatter the previous record high when Indian born steel baron Lakshmi Mittal forked over a stunning £67,000,000 for his 12 bedroom behemoth on heavily secured Kensington Palace Gardens.

Miz Franchuk's new digs have recently undergone a reported £10,000,000 overhaul which included installing an underground swimming pool, gym, sauna and private cinema. There are "at least" 10 bedrooms and a secure panic room, a feature that is becoming de rigueur in the lavish homes of the freakishly rich. Look closely and you can see the interior spaces appear to have been extended under the entire back garden and all the way to the mews cottage at the rear of the property, which is included in the sale. That's some serious and impressive engineering iffin we say so ourselves.

Miz Franchuk, a well known ladee among big money international philanthropic types, is the daughter of a former president of the Ukraine and the wife of 40-something billionaire bizness man and may-jor contemporary art collector Viktor Pinchuk.

Now puppies, Your Mama certainly has no problem with rich people living up in nice houses. Hell, we're rich and living up in nice houses. However, we do confess that in our little pea brain there's something unseemly and, frankly, vulgar about anyone paying $160,000,000 for a single house that is likely to be occupied, at most, only a few months of the year. We know Miz Franchuk and Mister Pinchuk pledge generously with their time and money to a myriad of charitable causes including AIDS education and research, and we credit them for their good works. But could they not have found a nice house for $60,000,000 and spent the other $100,000,000 curing cancer or feeding every starving child in the Ukraine for many years to come? Just a thought.

(Your Mama would like to thank the many people who forwarded up information and links to this story.)

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

This property was developed several years ago. The underground extension [beneath the garden] right back to the mews house & garage were completed by a wealthy Israeli guy about 5 [?] years ago ... The property then sat on the market for quite sometime at around £28M/$56M .... Not sure if it ever sold way back then but the interiors were awful ... It was like some Arab palace which is ironic considering it was owned by an Israeli! The picture above of the pool is from years ago - not current pics if it's recently underwent another refurbishment.

Anonymous said...

could these numbers be a marketing publicity ploy ?

With all of this going on could London could become the next Eden, maybe even recession proof ?

I have heard that you cannot just walk around up there, there is tight security everywhere is that true ?

It definetly looks like the uber super super rich are creating their own art collection of homes that are truly bubble proof.

Anonymous said...

"I have heard that you cannot just walk around up there, there is tight security everywhere is that true ?"

I think you're meaning Kensington Palace Gardens - It's a gated street of embassies & private residences with crazy security. This property is to the west, on a regular street, about a 5 min walk from Ken Pal Gdns.

Anonymous said...

I should have read the linked article 1st ...

So, like I said this property was developed years ago by an Israeli [linked article says Chinese but I still say an Israeli]. The property was on the market for ages at £25-£28M ... According to the article it was bought by a developer in Jun 2006, they say Mike Spink so I'm assuming it's this Spink ...

http://www.spinkproperty.co.uk


Anyway, my main question is this ... Bought in 2006 for approx £20M ... the article says, "has been rebuilt and refurbished at an estimated £10 million, but is not yet ready for occupation" .. so that equals £30M ... & it's sold for £80M! It just doesn't make sense ... There is no way a developer can expect to make that kind of profit ... I really don't believe it has sold for £80M ... All the complicated architectural engineering [the lower floors extending back underneath the garden housing the pool etc ..] were all already in place when the developer bought this place in 2006 ... All this property needed was a gut interior renovation to get rid of the over the top gaudiness ... either the refurbishment costs were way higher than the reported £10M or the purchase price was lower than the reported £80M ... Unless there were several parties bidding against one another ... Also, the Israeli who owned it prior to 2006 - I don't think he ever lived in it ...

Anonymous said...

"Size: Big"

There is only one Mama! LOL

Anonymous said...

The thing is, neither this house nor the one on The Bishop's Avenue is as good of a location as Kensington Palace Gardens where Mittal bought. That is the true Billionaire's Row. Given the real estate mantra of location, location, location, I can only imagine what the asking price would be should one of those few homes come up for sale again.

Also, as Anonymous mentioned above, this house was for sale for years at a much lower price with most of the expensive work already done. I can't believe anyone would pay that much for it even now. If I'm not mistaken, Richard Branson's home in Holland Park was listed for only £30M just in the last couple of years and it was a on a huge corner lot in a fabulous location. I don't think this house was worth anywhere near £80M but, if the report is true, then the neighbors will be thrilled. Because I think many of the other homes are very similar.

Anonymous said...

I doubt this story is accurate, if it is, than this person bought the place at this price as a status symbol. There is no way this place is worth that much. I live in London, and it is true, there are grander houses in better location for far less money. Someone just wanted to set a record. As far as London being recession proof, there was another article today or yesterday about the fourth straight drop in sales prices in the UK. It is only this stratospheric level of property that seems to have no ceiling.

Anonymous said...

^

Yeah, the entire north side of the street is the same ... The property to the west of this property is really nice ... I sort of agree about the location .. Very few streets in the world can compare to K.P.G but houses virtually never come on the market & this property is only a few streets west - still a W8 zipcode ... Richard Bransons house was nice but Holland Park isn't quite as popular as Kensington ... The location of this property is a million times better than Bishops Av ... Upper Phillimore is a beautiful street with old properties compared to the nouveau riche monstrosities of The Bishops Av.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, comment 2:46 was for 'Baroness Rebecca'


Anon 2:36

"grander house in better location"

Where? The Phillimores is one of the best areas in London & Kensington W8 is one of Londons wealthiest areas ... Have you ever been on this street? The houses are absolutely enormous - don't let the pics fool you ... This particular property is 18,000sq ft! where do you get grander than that? If you want a property in Central London then this location can't really be bettered & anything of a similar size in Belgravia, Knightsbridge or Chelsea would be a similar price. I was skeptical about the price but when I thought about it this place was on the market for £25M in 2004 ... The past 4 years property has skyrocketed & after a full renovation by Spink [one of the top developers] then £80M isn't really out of the question ... Especially considering the amount of buyers chasing prime properties ...

I know of an extremely expensive property in Chelsea that had 107 viewings in 4 weeks & ended up with 20 offers, 4 of which were 45% over the asking price ... & if people are willing to fork out £100M for apartments at 1 Hyde Park then surely they're willing to fork out £80M for an 18,000sq ft townhouse on one of the most old-moneyed streets in the capital ...

Anonymous said...

maybe you can drill for oil there ? maybe there is a pile of gold underneath the property ?

maybe the place is paved in gold and diamonds ?

or maybe it was bought for bragging rights...

Alessandra said...

Pathetic bragging rights...it doesn't impress me much as a house, despite the price.

Anonymous said...

thats cheap. I think the market price for Buckingham Palace would be around 8 billion dollars.

If only it could be on the market because the rest in london is too small and plebs .

Anonymous said...

It may be an obscene amount of money for one residence, regardless of its locale, but the truly rich are free to spend as they will, and the lady is noted as being a philanthropist.

How much she gives in relation to what she spends on herself we may never know, as some like to make their giving very public while others do so quietly, just as Carnegie gave away millions in his lifetime while the Rockefellers did also, but set up a foundation so you'd know damn sure where it came from.

The price of this house could comfort every lost soul in Darfur for God knows how long, but that's another story for another day.

What we really need are some before and after pictures before we can properly shred this property to bits.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to do a YouTube video of me making a cauldron of Bats wings,snails and worms,then dressed as a silent Iranian billion year old billionaire(sort of like a witch)I will deliver the pot luck to the door of the Ukranian billionaire.

Anonymous said...

Don't even think about it you publicity hungry old toad.One step onto the property and boiling Chanel No 5 oil will be poured onto you from our cauldron on the roof.

Anonymous said...

Mama, you've been awful busy today.

Why not take it easy tomorrow and give us another helping of your delicious Mish Mash?

That always stirs things up!

Anonymous said...

Oh so_chic_darling,

If you care to, I left some questions for you at Just Jack /Sean Hayes. I'd love to hear your insights.

Best.

KC said...

I really wonder if anyone could sit on such expensive cushions in such a palace. I might be tempted to think these are some high end digs to impress the heck out of future devotees(and donors) of one's championed causes.

Anonymous said...

Does the house self-clean itself as well?

That is ridiculously high considering what I see. I'd rather buy Mar-A-Lago and build Rosalia a staff house about 100K sqft away from me.

Anonymous said...

LAPD Tipster,

Size Queen.

Anonymous said...

I have a question, I know some people in London who live in a 8 story town house which takes up the entire corner of a block. It is amazing in side as you can imagine...elevator, electronic systems...everything. The home is very wide and deep. It is in mayfair right near the dorchester... How much are properties worth around there? for more context the house is about 12000 sq feet, and really spectacular. When I was there I could see that it really was one, if not the nicest propert in the immediate area... any guesses?

Anonymous said...

9:49, you might want to wander over to www.wetherell.co.uk -- they specialize in Mayfair real estate and you might be able to find listings (with asking prices) that look similar to your friends' house.

Anonymous said...

Coming up on Pay-Per-View - "Wrestling Ladies Of London Real Estate" featuring Olena Franchuk and Hourieh Peramam.

Anonymous said...

All that money and no back yard.

I hope they don't have dogs.

Philanthropic activities?

Oh, puhleez!!!!

Sponsoring pics of naked ladies covered with caviar is not a philanthropic activity.

Let's just not go with the philanthropic activities, shall we?

This is just another idiot with more money than brains.

Oh, and by the way - they stole their money fair and square in Ukraine.

Taras said...

When you think of all the philanthropy ₤80 m can buy, the truth hits home.

Anonymous said...

Donate some of it.

Miz Traina said...

I want to go to there....or anywhere in London, as a matter of fact...I hear Belgravia is nice, but ony if you buy on "fasionable side". sorry Oscar