The $200 Million Apartment

More

evidence that house prices are moving towards a power-law

distribution, with the expensive stuff becoming insanely expensive:

Sheikh Hamad, the Foreign Minister of Qatar, recently paid

$195 million for a 20,000-square-foot penthouse at One Hyde Park in London.

Put down your calculator. That’s $9,800 per square foot.

The

Independent has more details on developers Nick and Christian Candy:

Before these penthouses went on the market, it was assumed that the upper

price limit for any London home – however luxurious – was £2,000 per

square foot. The Candy brothers made £4,000 per square foot their starting

price.

It’s also worth noting that even after spending $195 million for his flat,

Sheikh Hamad – and the owners of two other penthouses which are also rumored

to have gone for £100 million apiece – still won’t be able to move

in until 2009 at the earliest.

London, of course, is even more of a global city than New York, and as someone

who hasn’t lived in London for 10 years I view these developments with a mixture

of pride and incomprehension. I remember the area in question as being posh,

to be sure, but in a slightly shabby way: this was back when the hotel next

door, today the Mandarin Oriental, was simply the Hyde Park Hotel. Now, it seems,

there’s nowhere on the planet more upscale.

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