By Ben Farmer
A home with more than 10 bedrooms and an underground swimming pool has become the world's most expensive single residential dwelling after being sold for £80 million.
The detached Victorian villa in west London broke the previous record of £67 million for the London home of Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian steel tycoon.
However, estate agents yesterday predicted the record would soon be broken again, with other properties already on the market for similar sums.
The five-storey house in Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, has been undergoing extensive development for the past 18 months and will not be complete until April.
The property is believed to have at least 10 bedrooms, an underground swimming pool, a gym, a sauna, a cinema and a secure panic room in case of intruders or an attack.
Knight Frank, the estate agents who handled the sale, would not comment on the buyer, but it was reported to be Elena Franchuk, a Ukrainian businesswoman and philanthropist who is a friend of Sir Elton John.
Until 1997, the property was a girls' preparatory school. It was bought in June 2006 by a firm of developers specialising in exclusive properties.
World's most expensive flat which costs £100million in central London
£100million penthouse.
Hyde Park, London.
£6,000 per square foot.
Private wine-tasting facility.
Russian oligarchs, oil barons, Saudia princes and A-list stars are among those said to be buying the Candy brothers apartments.
Managed by brothers Christian and Nick's development company Candy & Candy, the project features 80 flats designed by architect Richard Rogers with communal spas, squash courts and a private wine-tasting facility.
The most expensive penthouse apartments will feature bullet proof windows, purified air systems and "panic rooms" and everyone on site will have access to an underground passage leading to the nearby Mandarin Oriental hotel.
Half of the units have already been sold at an average of more than £20 million each with average per square-foot prices hitting £6,000 this year.
The figure dwarfs London's earlier record struck last June when a newly converted flat stretching across the first and second stories of two Regency houses in the nearby Lowndes Square, Belgravia, sold for more than £4,250 per square foot.
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