Vast Knightsbridge penthouse for sale for 27% less than in 2012 but extraordinarily 6,900% more than in 1999
Constructed between 1961 and 1962 by builders Gilbert Ash, Collier House is not the most attractive structure in Knightsbridge externally. Whilst retailers Reiss and Nespresso – lucky residents get George Clooney’s ugly ‘mug’ stuck on the façade as a bonus (excuse the pun) – occupy the ground floor, the top floor ‘space’ was sold for the creation of a two-storey penthouse in 1999 for £230,000.
Developed to provide a 4,615 square foot duplex over two floors, the apartment is currently on the market for the considerably higher figure of £16 million through agents Merchants Row. It includes 2 reception rooms that are some 70-foot in length in total, a bar area, a media room, 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and comes with wrap-around terraces with skyline views towards Harrods and the Brompton Oratory.
From October 2014 to July 2019, the penthouse was the registered office of Elaph Publishing Limited. Founded in 2001 by Othman Al Omeir – a man “considered close to King Salman of Saudi Arabia” – Elaph is described as “the first daily Arabic independent online newspaper.” It has at various times been banned in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen and its former managing director was the EMMY award winning producer Nicholas Claxton.
The long leasehold penthouse, which was offered for the even more outrageous sum of £22 million in November 2012, has direct lift access to the sixth floor and comes with secure underground parking. It is subject to a service charge of £10,800 per year, has been offered to rent for £10,000 per week previously and what the agents neglect to mention is that it is situated directly above one of London’s most polluted stretches of road.
The Numbers – Collier House, 163 – 169 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London, SW3 1PY, United Kingdom
April 2020 – For sale for £16 million ($20 million, €18.4 million or درهم73.4 million) through agents Merchants Row.
November 2012 – For sale for £22 million ($27.5 million, €25.3 million or درهم101 million) through agents Wilfords.
July 1999 – “As then was” space for penthouse sold for £230,000 ($287,000, €264,000 or درهم1.1 million) according to Land Registry records.
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