ThisIsLondon.co.uk.It is a mansion fit for a king - or even a tsar.
Not content with the dozens of houses he already owns around the world, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has now submitted plans to create the most expensive private residence in Britain.
Spread across two stucco-fronted properties in Lowndes Square in London, the eight-bedroom building is expected to be worth up to £150million when completed.
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Mr Abramovich has been buying up the individual flats over the years and now wants to convert the building into the single home, but will not change the exterior.
He first bought a flat there in the late Nineties, spending £1.2million. He and his then wife, Irina, spent a similar amount gutting and remodelling it and it was their London home for several years.
That was before he bought Chelsea FC, a Sussex estate and a home worth £40million in nearby Chester Square, which Irina kept following their divorce.
Abramovich held on to the Lowndes Square flat and steadily expanded his portfolio.
"I knew he was buying property in the square," said a property expert. "But I didn't realise all of them were in these two buildings. He was obviously determined to acquire them and just waited patiently until, one by one, they came on the market."
By cannily buying up individual flats, the Russian has ended up paying between £15million and £20million for the two historic houses, a great deal less than their eventual worth.
Last September, he bought the freehold for the buildings from Sun Life for only £1.8million.
Not too shabby I suppose.
