The former boss of Google, Eric Schmidt, has bought a Holland Park mansion for nearly £42m, in the latest in a string of big transactions in London’s prime real estate market.
Schmidt, who was the chief executive of Google from 2001 to 2011, bought the double-fronted stuccoed mansion in west London, last May, according to the Financial Times.
The Grade II-listed building also comes with mews houses at the back and was last bought in 2022 for £36.2m, according to official records at the Land Registry. Its sale is the latest in a series of high-profile deals in London’s prime real estate market, after the recent £139m sale of a 40-bedroom mansion inside Regent’s Park.
The ex-Google chief executive, who with his wife owns a string of properties, plans to rent out the property, the FT reported. He is one of many wealthy Americans investing in top-end London property. Last year, Americans overtook Chinese buyers in the capital, accounting for 9.3% of overseas buyers, compared with 5.6% in 2019, according to research by the real estate agent Knight Frank.
The number of Americans applying for UK citizenship also hit a record high last year, after Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency and the abolition of the non-dom tax status in the UK. More than 6,100 US citizens applied for UK citizenship, marking a 26% increase from 2023 and the highest number since data collection began in 2004.
While there have recently been a few large deals at the most expensive end of the market in London, activity overall has been slowing. Last year, the number of London homes selling for more than £5m stood at 443, a drop of 16% against the 525 recorded in 2023, according to research by the estate agent Savills. However, it still stands well above pre-pandemic levels of 308 in 2019.
Overall price growth in the capital has been relatively low. London recorded the lowest annual price growth across the UK in February, according to Nationwide building society, at 1.9%, compared with a national rate of 3.9%. That was led by 13.5% in Northern Ireland, the highest in the region since 2021. Scotland posted a 3.9% rise, with Wales at 3.6%. However, London remained the most expensive place to buy a home, at an average price of £529,369, Nationwide said.
A spokesperson for Schmidt said: “Eric invests in high-end real estate properties around the world.”
