Sajeda Momin

London: It looks as if Lakshmi Mittal has managed to buy yet another one of Britain’s prized properties — this time it is for his son Aditya.

The 32-year-old scion of the Mittal family has been looking to shift from his current residence in Belgravia in central London and move closer to his parents.

Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal famously bought his mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens in 2004 paying £57 million — making it the most expensive home in the world at the time.

If the expected sale goes through then it looks as if son Aditya has spent yet another record-breaking amount to buy his new home a few doors away.

Aditya is about to pay a whopping £117 million for a mansion on Palace Green, an extension of Kensington Palace Gardens.

The price would smash the previous record of £80 million for a London home, set only three months ago for a property in nearby Upper Phillimore Gardens. If all goes well Aditya will have paid £8,000 per square foot for his new pad.

According to sources, the Mittals are about to exchange contracts on the detached residence with its current owner Noam Gottesman, the American-born hedge fund mogul. Britain’s richest man approached Gottesman for his home which is next door to the Israeli Embassy with an offer he found hard to refuse. According to the Rich List, Gottesman’s fortune is estimated at £460 million.

Kensington Palace Gardens were built in the 1840s on part of the grounds of Kensington Palace — erstwhile home of the late Princess Diana — and boasts the capital’s most imposing residences and home to some of Britain’s wealthiest people.

The Indian High Commissioner’s official residence is also on this road. A local property agent said that owner’s of the few private homes on the street are “deluged with unsolicited offers but few have the need or desire to sell”.

Keen to move closer to his father, Aditya had made an unsolicited offer of £200 million to one of the residents of Kensington Palace Gardens last month. The owner of the eight-bedroom heritage home, Jon Hunt, founder of the Foxtons estate agency, refused to sell.

About a year ago, Aditya had also made enquires about the Nepalese Embassy doubling up as the Ambassador’s residence also on Kensington Palace Gardens, but they were unwilling to sell.

“This is the only place you are going to get detached mansions of this size. If you sell here,where else are you going to buy?” suggested a property agent who works in the area. The average size of a home here is around 40,000 square feet.

Source : DNA