SOLD! Ukraine's richest man snaps up Britain's most expensive flat... for £136MILLION (and he's already planning a £60m refit)

Published 19th Apr 2011

Ukraine's richest man has snapped up Britain's most expensive flat in a recording-breaking purchase.

Rinat Akhmetov, 44, a self-made billionaire after investing in steel and coal mines, will soon have the keys to the priciest apartment in the One Hyde Park development in London's exclusive Knightsbridge - after forking out £136million.

But the penthouse, which has breathtaking views over Hyde Park and the London skyline, is unlikely to make a dent in Mr Akhmetov's reported £10billion fortune.

The coal miner's son and father-of-two bought two apartments and had them knocked into one - and now he is planning a £60million refit of the interior of the three-storey penthouse.

According to the Financial Times, Elena Dovzhenko, spokeswoman for Mr Akhmetov, confirmed that the oligarch’s holding company, System Capital Management, had invested in the property.

And 2009 accounts reveal that SCM is the leading financial and industrial group in Ukraine with assets of about £11.3billion.

Mr Akhmetov's new home does certainly not fall short in the luxury stakes.

The giant glass and concrete block of flats, sandwiched between Harvey Nichols and The Serpentine, was last year billed as the return of the super-rich to London's property market.

At an asking price upwards of £6,000 per square foot, the luxury development – designed by Lord Rogers and masterminded by developer brothers Nicholas and Christian Candy – is said to be the most expensive residential property in the world.

The pair bought the site, formerly occupied by a grim 1950s office block, for £150million in 2004.

With its 'fortress-like' security which includes iris-recognition systems in the lifts, panic rooms and bullet-proof glass, the design includes 15 different types of precious marble and whole forests of felled European oak.


The building also has a private cinema, 21-metre swimming pool, saunas, a gym, a golf simulator, a wine cellar, a valet service, concierge and room service from the Mandarin Oriental next door, not to mention an underground passage to a Heston Blumenthal restaurant.

The cheapest home on offer, a humble one-bedroom flat, is said to cost £6.75 million, with developers claiming that the majority cost between £27million and £33million.

Son of a coal miner, the 44-year-old economics graduate made his first million trading coal.

A married father-of-two, he expanded his business into conglomerate System Capital Management which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.

In July last year, his company Metinvest invested in Ilyich Iron and Steel making Metinvest worth three times more than last year.

He is also planning to export electricity to Europe in a new venture.

He is president of Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk and serves as a parliamentary member representing current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s party.

Last year, he was ranked 148th richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine.

Even the service charge is record-breaking. At £150 per square metre per year, the owners of the biggest units can expect to pay more than £100,000 annually.

The identities of the buyers of One Hyde Park has been one of London's best-kept secrets with many guarded by confidentiality agreements with developers.

Estate agents and property analysts say the development say it proves the top end of the property market is booming as the financial elite - international businessmen and overseas investors - are looking for a safe place to invest.

About a quarter of buyers in the block are Middle Eastern, while one third are European.

One duplex apartment has been reserved by Mohammed Saud Sultan Al Qasimi, head of finance for the government of Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates.

Another is under contract to London-based Vladimir Kim, a Kazakh billionaire who is chairman of the Kazakhstan copper producer Kazakhmys, and another is being bought by Ray Grehan, the founder of Irish residential developer Glenkerrin.

According to the Land Registry, 33 flats have been registered with a combined value of £727million although Project Grande, owner of the building, said 45 sales were completed, but some are not yet on the register.

About 30 flats are still to be sold worth about £125million.

The previous most expensive flat was valued at £115million in a rival Central London development at St James’s Square in 2008.

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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