George Lucas has bought a London mansion for about £40mil (RM218.59mil), one of the UK’s most expensive home deals this year.
The Star Wars creator purchased the house in a prime enclave of north west London in September, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorised to discuss the transaction. The mansion was formerly owned by a senior City lawyer.
A spokesperson for Lucas declined to comment.
The deal is the latest example of interest from wealthy Americans providing some consolation to the luxury London market in the midst of a slump.
Silicon Valley investor Matt Cohler bought a detached house in Notting Hill for roughly £22mil (RM120.18mil) at the end of April, while a member of the multibillionaire family behind Thomson Reuters Corp. agreed to buy a high-end London apartment for about £25mil (RM136.59mil) earlier this year.
Lucas, who also created the Indiana Jones movie franchise, sold his Lucasfilm production company to Disney for US$4.1bil in 2012. His fortune is valued at US$6.6bil (RM27.6bil), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The transaction is one of this year’s rare high points for the London luxury property market after stamp duty increases and the abolition of a preferential tax status enjoyed by ultra-rich foreign residents hammered demand.
There were 41% fewer £5mil-plus transactions in September compared with the same month a year ago, with uncertainties around further taxation in the run-up to the UK budget further weakening activity, according to researcher LonRes.
Still, a handful of mega-deals defied the slump this year, including Nigerian banker Roosevelt Ogbonna’s purchase of a £15mil mansion in London’s Hampstead neighbourhood.
American buyers are on track to secure one of the most expensive London home sales for the second year in a row, after fashion designer Tom Ford bought a roughly £80mil (RM334.63mil) mansion last summer. – Bloomberg
