He was right – embassy WAS sold for peanuts
AMERICA sold the lease on its old embassy for £315 million – nearly £200 million less than thought.
Donald Trump’s complaint it was sold for ‘peanuts’ appeared to be vindicated by Land Registry documents.
The imposing building on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair was previously reported to have fetched £500 million – a value given by property experts.
But documents obtained by the Daily Mail show the US was paid £315 million by Qatari Diar – the property arm of the Qatari royal family – on August 28, 2013.
The Qataris own the leasehold until the year 2953, the lease states. The freehold owner remains the Duke of Westminster who charges one peppercorn a year rent. The Qataris plan to convert the embassy into a luxury Rosewood hotel.
Last night property experts said the US had ‘sold the family silver’.
The state- of-the-art new embassy, in Nine Elms, south-west London, was said to have cost £750million although Mr Trump claimed it was as high as £900 mil-
‘Sold the family silver’
lion. The move was supposedly ‘free’ because the Americans said the costs were covered by the sale of the old embassy and other buildings.
In a tweet about scrapping a visit to the UK yesterday, Mr Trump said: ‘Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!’
Mr Trump was right that the sale took place under Mr Obama, but the decision to move was taken when George W Bush was in the White House.
Peter Wetherell, of Mayfair estate agent Wetherell, estimated the old embassy had been worth £400million to £500million when it was sold.
Christian Warman, of estate agency Tedworth Property, said: ‘In terms of whether the Americans have sold the family silver, yes, Mayfair is always going to be a prime hub of London, and right now Nine Elms isn’t.’ The move was prompted by security concerns at the 1950s Mayfair building. In the mid-2000s it was not deemed secure enough and Congress ruled all embassies must be set back from the street.
The new site, near Battersea Power Station, is bristling with anti-terrorist measures, such as barriers, ditches and a moat.
Robert Johnson, the US Ambassador to Britain, praised it as ‘the most secure, hi-tech embassy that the US has ever built’.
He added: ‘Purchased and built from the sale of our London properties, the new embassy did not cost the US taxpayer a cent.’
A US embassy spokesman said: ‘The US chancery in Grosvenor Square had aged beyond its ability to be improved to current security and life safety standards without extensive investment.’
They added: ‘A multi-disciplinary team of professionals ... determined that the Nine Elms site was the best overall location.’