One billionaire’s frustration can be another’s opportunity. After the Norwegian-born shipping baron John Fredriksen quit London, he declared “Britain has gone to hell”, but his departure has created the chance for someone to snap up his home.
They’ll just need to have at least £250 million to spare to buy one of the capital’s most intriguing and desirable residences.
Rather than merely shutter the Old Rectory, the 300-year-old Georgian manor, or hand it to one of his two daughters, Fredriksen, 81, is eyeing a sale. Local residents say the mogul has already let go of more than a dozen domestic staff and arranged for discreet viewings.
A listing on RightMove is unlikely. Homes of this grandeur are usually sold in confidential “off-market” deals, which are brokered by a select band of specialist agents.
Tucked away on the oldest street in Chelsea, southwest London, the Old Rectory boasts its own ballroom and a garden of nearly two acres, one of the biggest belonging to a private house in central London.
The Duke of Wellington is said to have drawn up his plans for the Battle of Waterloo on the Old Rectory’s lawns because his brother, Gerald Valerian Wellesley, a rector, lived in the property for 27 years. Charles Kingsley, the Victorian writer who wrote The Water-Babies, is another former resident.
Secluded behind high brick walls, the property is barely visible from the street, offering the secrecy the very wealthy often crave. A renovation during the 1990s added two wings, leaving the property with ten suites and about 30,000 square feet of living space.
The shipping magnate John Fredriksen and his partner Maryam Mohaghegh in their former neighbourhood of Chelsea
ALAMY
A spokesman for Fredriksen declined to comment on whether the Old Rectory was for sale or how many domestic staff had been let go earlier this year.
John Waters, a director of the independent buying agency Robert Bailey Property, said: “Many of the wealthy owners we have seen leave the UK recently have not in fact chosen to sell their London homes — instead deciding to rent overseas in the hope that the UK tax system will in the future become less unfavourable.
“Often they are very sad to be leaving, but they feel they have little choice due to the end of non-dom status and the prospect of all their global assets being subject to UK inheritance tax.”
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For centuries, the non-dom regime allowed wealthy people, who were domiciled overseas for tax purposes, to only pay UK tax on income earned here, until it was scrapped by the chancellor in April.
Fredriksen bought the Old Rectory from the Greek businessman, Theodore Angelopoulos, for £37 million in 2001, making his debut on The Sunday Times Rich List two years later with an estimated wealth of £475 million. He appeared at No 9 in this year’s Rich List with wealth estimated at £13.7 billion.
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Born in Norway to a welder and his wife, Fredriksen started his oil trading career in his twenties. In the 1970s he began assembling a vast tanker fleet, profiting handsomely by transporting oil at high risk amid the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s.
As well as shipping, his financial interests include oil drilling, salmon farming and commercial property. Fredriksen’s wife, Inger, died in 2006 from cancer. The couple’s twin daughters, Cecilie and Kathrine, 41, have spent much of their lives in London. The Old Rectory has been Fredriksen’s main home since 2001.
Kathrine and Cecilie Fredriksen at an exhibition in the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, in 2012
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It was the high taxes of his homeland that inspired Fredriksen to leave Norway for the UK, and later renounce his Norwegian citizenship. He is now a Cypriot national.
At an event in Oslo last month, he was asked about his views on the UK. “It’s starting to remind me more and more of Norway,” the billionaire told the business newspaper E24. “Britain has gone to hell, like Norway … I try to avoid Norway as much as I can.”
He added that the “the entire western world is on its way down”, describing Donald Trump’s trade policy as “completely hopeless”. “People should get up and work even more, and go to the office instead of having a home office,” he said.
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The closure of his office in Sloane Square, near the Old Rectory, earlier this year, and his decision to spend much of his time in the United Arab Emirates suggests he will not feature in future editions of the Rich List.
Rob McGibbon, the editor of the online local newspaper The Chelsea Citizen, described the Old Rectory as a “prized jewel” that “comes with excellent bragging rights”.
John Fredriksen and his daughter Cecilie
NICK HARVEY / GETTY
He said: “My hope is that the next owners are a family who will actually live in the house full-time and are people who care about the Chelsea community. Too many homes in our area are lived in for a few weeks a year. They’re just places to park money. Please, don’t let this amazing house go to another billionaire who uses it like a luxury hotel. Make it a permanent home.”
Would-be buyers will find themselves pitted against a wily negotiator, one who previously thwarted another billionaire with local connections.
In 2004 Roman Abramovich, the former Chelsea FC owner who invested heavily in property in the area, offered Fredriksen £100 million for the Old Rectory. The Russian’s unsolicited bid was turned down.