Bargain of the Century? Article Published: 10:15 14/05/2009 Article Classification: United Kingdom
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A London property was sold last week for an incredible discount, possibly the largest discount for a residential property ever.

Raffaele Mincione, a former fiancée of Heather Mills got the bargain of his life when he secured a Knightsbridge property for £18 million after £22 million was knocked off the asking price. The millionaire banker paid less than half of the original price for the refurbished Sloane Street property last month.

Only a short 18 months ago the same property was listed to sell for a whopping £40 million. But that was before the global finance melt-down. Interestingly enough, Mincione said to media in an interview “There’s no bargain. In a very uncertain time, there is no bargain,” after being asked whether he was happy about buying a bargain.

Initially the property developers rejected offers in the range of £33 million to £34 million. But when the collapse of Lehman Brothers stirred up the “golden” pot in the real estate industry in England the whole game changed.

Now we bet that the developers wished to have accepted the original offers rather than having to settle for a mere 50% of the original. Some speculators reckon that the property was hard to sell due to its cold and un-inviting interior. Apparently it wasn’t advertised before, making it hard to sell. The developer believed that if he would market the Sloane Street property in conventional ways it wouldn’t attract rich buyers in the first place - so he never did. Over the space of 18 months this belief cost him a cool £22 million.

In hindsight it was perhaps not the right strategy to adapt, but to be fair, one never knows what the future holds anyway. While the gossip about this sale is hot in London right now the developer has actually refused to deny or confirm the purchase.

Article from Overseaspropertylive.com