Search the Sunday Times Riich List

IT is known as billionaires’ row, but to Lakshmi Mittal, Britain’s richest man, it is more like a street on the Monopoly board.

Having moved into Kensington Palace Gardens four years ago, the steel tycoon’s family has been sounding out neighbours to try to acquire further properties in the exclusive west London road.

Mittal’s son Aditya, 32, is said to have offered close to £200m to Jon Hunt, founder of the Foxtons estate agency, for his eight-bedroom grade II listed mansion.

Hunt, who made his fortune from the house price explosion, rebuffed the unsolicited approach. He paid just £14m for the rundown property and is carrying out a massive renovation programme.

Although sources close to the Mittals claim the £200m price tag has been exaggerated, the bold offer indicates how Britain’s super-rich seem oblivious to the global credit crunch that has left ordinary homeowners facing a drop in property prices.

“Houses are still changing hands for record levels, but most of the time they are so wrapped up in nondisclosure agreements that nobody hears anything about them,” said Rupert des Forges, a partner at Knight Frank estate agent.

Hunt’s mansion is not the only property on Kensington Palace Gardens – a private road lined with foreign embassies – in which Aditya has shown an interest. He has previously made inquiries about the Nepalese embassy at 12a. Aditya “came to look at it about a year ago, but he didn’t make an offer”, said a diplomatic source. “Our government said at the time that it wasn’t interested in selling and so the matter was closed.”

Aditya, who lives in Belgravia, is thought to be keen to move his wife, Megha, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and their two daughters closer to his parents.

As finance director of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel-maker, Aditya is no stranger to the jetset lifestyle. He recently told The Sunday Times about flying to Jakarta for a business meeting: “So after my meeting, I say to the [private jet] crew, hey, we’ll do dinner in Kuala Lumpur, then take off for Hanoi.” A former army officer, Hunt set up Foxtons in a converted Italian restaurant in 1981. The company grew during the property boom of the past decade to become one of Britain’s most high-profile estate agencies. He cashed in his majority stake in Foxtons last May for £370m as the housing market neared its peak.

Hunt, who also owns a Georgian mansion in Suffolk, bought his home in Kensington Palace Gardens in 2005. A year later he was granted planning permission to build an underground sports hall with enough room for a tennis court, a swimming pool, gym and sauna, as well as space for a “car museum” for his six Ferraris.

Building work has yet to start, but the property’s location – backing on to Kensington Gardens – makes it one of the most desirable homes on the road.

“It’s on the better side of the street,” said a source. “That’s the whole point. It’s probably one of the best houses in London. But he has no intention of selling it at the moment. He’s been granted planning permission to do some amazing work. It’s not on the market for sale.”

Kensington Palace Gardens, built in the 1840s on part of the grounds of Kensington Palace, boasts the capital’s most imposing residences and is home to some of Britain’s wealthiest people. Lakshmi’s home, bought for £57m from Bernie Eccle-stone, the Formula One chief, has marble features imported from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal.

Four years ago, Leonard Blavatnik, the billionaire oil baron and a US citizen, paid about £42m for 15 Kensington Palace Gardens, outbidding Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club.

Blavatnik is also building an underground extension to his property and is living across the road at 15a while the work is being completed. Experts believe his temporary home, which was modernised a few years ago, will go on the market for at least £100m when Blavatnik moves out.

The Nepalese embassy, which doubles up as an official ambassadorial residence, could fetch as much as £150m if it is put up for sale. Local estate agents say the owners of the street’s few private homes, some of which are as big as 40,000 sq ft, are deluged with unsolicited offers– but few have the need or desire to sell.

“It’s the only place you are going to get detached mansions of this size without going out to St John’s Wood, and even then they won’t be on the same scale,” said one agent who works in the area. “If you sell here, where else are you going to buy?”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• What makes the perfect mum?
• To keep me stress-free, no more awareness days, please
• What do lottery winners buy?