Adar Poonawalla just bought a Rs 1,444 crore mansion in Mayfair, London's most expensive home sale of 2023

Adar Poonawalla of the Pune-based Serum Institute is all set to get his hands on a London mansion, making it the most expensive London home sale this year.

According to the Financial Times, the Aberconway House, a 25,000a sq ft mansion from the 1920s, adjacent to the iconic Hyde Park, is set to change hands for a staggering £138 million (Rs 1,444 crore).

The deal, when done, would be London's second-most expensive home ever sold. London's all-time expensive residential sale was recorded in 2020, when Evergrande founder and chairman Hui Ka Yan bought the 2-8a Rutland Gate for £210 million (Rs 2,198 crore).

Aberconway House

• Aberconway House, previously owned by Dominika Kulczyk, daughter of Poland's late business magnate Jan Kulczyk, will now belong to Serum Life Sciences.
• The Serum Life Sciences is a UK subsidiary of the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, led by the Poonawalla family.
• In 2021, Poonawalla rented the Aberconway House for over £50,000 (Rs 52.3 lakh) per week, Bloomberg reported.
• The neo-Georgian mansion was constructed between 1920 and 1922 for the industrialist Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway.
• The imposing mansion with red brick and stone facade also has a guest house with ancillary accommodation of 8,651 sq ft.

• According to the Sunday Times, Edmund Wimperis and his partner WB Simpson were its official architects when it came up post-World War I.
• The 38 South Street mansion was almost entirely designed by the young John Murray Easton, who later designed the Royal Horticultural Society's Lawrence Hall and the British Pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair.
• The mansion is one of the largest homes in the neighbourhood, equal to around 24 average English homes and open to one of Mayfair’s "secret gardens", reported Bloomberg.
• "The house will serve as a base for the company and family when they are in the UK," a source close to Serum Life Sciences told the FT.

Adar in the UK

• Adar Poonawalla, chief of the Serum Institute of India, has been strategic in expanding his property portfolio and global investments.
• The latest acquisition follows his substantial investments in vaccine research and manufacturing facilities near Oxford in the UK.
• In 2021, the Poonawalla family pledged £50 million (Rs 523 crore) to Oxford University for the Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building.

Despite a broader slowdown in the UK housing market due to increased borrowing costs, London's high-end market often involves cash transactions, limiting the impact of mortgage rate fluctuations. This deal might just be the case here.