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The billionaire Poonawalla family have bought a £42 million building around the corner from their Mayfair home in London’s upmarket Grosvenor Square, despite fears that changes to Britain’s non-dom tax rules could attract wealthy international capital. Cars will be stopped.
According to UK public records, Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property company, which owns most of Mayfair, has granted a long lease of the building to Finity Developers Ltd, controlled by Natasha Poonawalla. The company is
The deal, finalized in May, came in the same month that her husband, Adar Poonawalla, who leads the family’s vaccine business, told the Financial Times that Britain’s tax changes for wealthy non-doms would affect the country. will prevent investors from
“Policy should be such that it encourages. . . people to come and invest in the UK and stay. . . . Instead of doing that, you’re creating rules that will drive people away,” he said.
Non-dom rules allow UK residents who have a permanent home abroad to avoid UK tax on their international income and gains. A Labor government will scrap the government in 2025, with tax changes hitting Britain’s wealthiest.
Adar Poonawalla told the FT in May that she had not spent enough time in the UK to be affected by the non-dom rules, but Natasha could miss out on tax benefits. “Some people are willing to pay the price like I am, but most people are not. . . . They can easily get out,” he said.
Natasha Poonawalla is a fashion influencer and an executive director at the family’s Serum Institute of India, which has produced millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine — and invested millions in vaccine research and production at Oxford. is
Around the corner from 38 Grosvenor Square Abercon Way House, the Poonawallas bought the more than 25,000 sq ft home through a holding company last year for £138mn – making it the second most expensive house ever sold in London.
Built in 1727, and still featuring 18th-century decorated ceilings in the style of Robert Adam, the Grosvenor Square property was an aristocratic townhouse and then the Indonesian embassy until 2017.
The property was advertised as a “blank canvas” for commercial redevelopment. The five-story, 27,000-square-foot building hasn’t had a full-time tenant in years, but is used to host events. It is described in marketing materials as one of the “last remaining buildings from the Square’s original construction date”.
Grosvenor declined to comment. A spokesman for the Poonawalla family declined to comment.
