London: Adar Poonawalla, CEO at the Serum Institute of India, agreed to rent a property in Mayfair for about 50,000 pounds ($69,000) a week, a record for the exclusive London neighbourhood, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction.
The mansion is one of the largest residences in the neighbourhood and measures about 25,000 square feet (2,322 square meters), the equivalent of about 24 average English homes. The property also comes with an adjoining guest house and backs onto one of Mayfair’s “secret gardens,” which are only accessible to residents.
The deal will be a boost for the luxury homes market in central London, which has been hit by a combination of Brexit and the pandemic. Rents have fallen by 9.2% in the past five years in Mayfair, according to LonRes, a property data company.
Poonawalla, who is currently spearheading the production of millions of doses of AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine, has long had links to the U.K. and studied at London’s University of Westminster. The businessman previously failed in a bid to buy the Grosvenor Hotel in Mayfair and turn part of it into a home.
Poonawalla is part of one of the world’s richest families, which has a $15 billion fortune, the bulk of it derived from the vaccine maker, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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