Share House - London

£22m knocked off the price of a London townhouse

Heather Mills's ex pays less than half original cost.

City Bond dealer has bought a Knightsbridge townhouse for £18m after £22m was knocked off the asking price.

Raffaele Mincione, who was once engaged to Heather Mills, paid less than half the original price for the newly refurbished house in Lennox Gardens, London.

The property had been on the market for £40m for 18 months before its price was slashed this year.

Mr Mincione, asked if he felt it was a bargain, replied: "In a very uncertain time there is no bargain."

The sale is the subject of a strict confidentiality agreement. But Noel De Keyzer, a director at Savills in Sloane Avenue, who was not involved, called the reduction "the biggest property bargain I have ever come across". He added: "The developer rejected offers at around £33m. Then came the collapse of Lehman Brothers and everything changed." Mr De Keyzer believes one reason why the house was difficult to sell was that it was too "stylised". He said: "It was so contemporary that it resulted in a sterile interior, like a boutique rather than a cosy home."

Another problem was that the house was never advertised. "The developer took the view that if he openly marketed the house he would never achieve a premium price from some rich Russian oligarch who craved privacy," said Mr De Keyzer.

Mr Mincione was a City bond dealer with the Industrial Bank of Japan when he made headlines as the fiance of Heather Mills, who would later marry and then divorce Sir Paul McCartney

Refurbished properties, a refurbished house in Knightsbridge, London.
"There is no bargain," says Raffaele Mincione.