John Griffin has parted with a six-bedroom house on the western edge of Regent's Park for £11.5 million, according to people familiar with the sale. Filings indicate he paid £20.7 million for it in 2013 - the same year he sold Addison Lee to Carlyle Group Inc. in a transaction of about £300 million, or $464 million. The property, on Hanover Terrace, is part of a Regency era row designed by John Nash.
This wasn't a fresh-to-market smash hit. The home's been listed multiple times in recent years, including a 2021 listing that touted it as one of London's grandest, most prestigious properties, with an asking price of £32 million. After several price cuts, it was pulled, then returned to the market this year at £13.5 million, the people said.
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Scoring a buyer at a deep discount in one of London's priciest postcodes reinforces what high end sellers already feel: the top tier market has been under pressure from changing taxes alongside economic and political shocks. Savills expects nominal price growth for prime London homes to remain on ice until 2028.
Griffin has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with HMRC over his tax residency, contending he should be treated as non-domiciled - a classification that would have shielded income earned abroad. According to one person familiar with the process, the parties came to a preliminary deal with the buyer this summer, prior to a tribunal decision in September that went against him. The sale then closed less than a month after that verdict.
It is not clear whether accepting the lower offer was tied to the ruling. Griffin's representative declined to comment.
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