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The Times has reported the five most expensive property sales of 2023, and we’re offering insight on how much it would be to insure each. Whilst we cannot access the underwriter’s exact rating guides, we can speculate on indicative insurance costings based on our extensive experience of insuring high-value homes – see our high-value home cost calculator. Some of the properties on the list below are currently, or have been previously, insured through Stanhope Cooper or Stanhope Insurance!
Aberconway House, Mayfair, £138 million
This 23,000 sq ft 1920s home near Hyde Park in central London was bought by the Indian billionaire Adar Poonawalla from Dominika Kulczyk, the daughter of the late businessman Jan Kulczyk, who was Poland’s richest man. The deal was completed in December 2023 and is the UK’s most expensive high-value home.
How much does it cost to insure annually? We know the market value but must ascertain the reinstatement value. Assuming the building has been crafted with the highest of finishes, and based on similar properties we insure, we’d expect a £40 million reinstatement value. Insuring the buildings would attract a premium of circa £50,000 a year. For the household contents, jewellery and art collections that would undoubtedly come with this property type, we’d expect a client of this stature to pay another £40,000 a year for all these.
Hanover Lodge, Regent’s Park, £113 million
Ravi Ruia, another Indian billionaire, bought this Grade II Listed mansion in Regent’s Park, north London, in an off-market deal with the Russian property investor Andrey Goncharenko, it was reported. Goncharenko, the former deputy chief executive of a subsidiary of Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, had bought the high-value Regency home’s outstanding lease in 2012 from the Conservative peer Raj Kumar Bagri for £120 million.
How much does it cost to insure annually? At Stanhope Cooper, we have previously insured this property on and off for the last eight years. We strongly suspect the reinstatement value is circa £60 million, which would attract an annual premium of £75,000 to insure the buildings. As with property one above, this is the cost for the buildings only and the client would need to add their general contents, fine art, jewellery and watches in addition to this.
3 Whistler Square, Chelsea, £60 million
This eight-bedroom, 14,704 sq ft high-value townhouse in Chelsea Barracks, a Qatari Diar development in west London, was snapped up in October by an unnamed Asian buyer for the asking price in a sale brokered by the agency Knight Frank. It has a spa with a 12-metre swimming pool and steam room, a cinema, wine room, garage, elevators between all seven floors, a roof terrace and a mews house at the end of a south-facing garden.
How much does it cost to insure annually? The reinstatement value for a property of this stature would be approximately £22 million. Considering the developer and the finish, we estimate it would come to this approximate value. The annual premium for the buildings, spa and swimming pool could be £40,000 yearly. Seven floors in London with a swimming pool and spa is complex and would attract a higher insurance rate.
2 Whistler Square, Chelsea, £60 million
Also, in the exclusive Chelsea Barracks development, this is a 15,000 sq ft six-storey townhouse with seven ensuite bedrooms. It boasts a spa with a 40ft indoor swimming pool, in-house treatment rooms, and a roof terrace. The sale was a private affair, with no agents believed to be involved.
How much does it cost to insure annually? This would be very similar to the above property in Whistler Square. But let’s be a little more creative on this one and add a £10-million-pound art collection and £2 million of jewellery with a floating limit of £500,000. Overall, we’d expect an annual high-value home insurance premium of circa £72,000.
Hill Street, Mayfair, £52 million
Knight Frank was again behind selling this property, bought out of receivership for £3 million less than the asking price. The buyer is unknown, but the 20-bedroom property was sold by receivers at Begbies Traynor, who was appointed to the properties in 2020. According to official property documents, the previous owners were not disclosed, though the National Bank of Abu Dhabi held a charge over the properties.
How much does it cost to insure annually? There needs to be more information on the size of this property, which makes it challenging to establish the reinstatement value. However, based on a similar high-value home properties we insure at Stanhope Insurance nearby we’d expect the rebuild value is £20 million. As a result, this would attract a premium of circa £25,000 a year for the buildings only.
If you would like to find out more about high-value home insurance, including how we can help, please contact the team today.