£10,750,000 mansion isn’t too taxing for Gervais
After driving neighbours mad digging a gym in current home...
HE’S previously been dubbed a ‘neighbour from hell’ over loud, messy building work.
And now Ricky Gervais could be moving to a new home – with potential for another raft of disruptive renovations.
The comedian has been spotted house-hunting an exclusive enclave of North London, taking a look around a £10.75million, eight-bedroom mansion.
Gervais caused upset at his current Victorian townhouse, by digging into his basement to install a £1million swimming pool, sauna and gym soon after moving in.
That might cause concern for those living near the impressive doublefronted house he and his partner, the author Jane Fallon, inspected last week, as there is scope for major excavation work there too. ‘There is huge potential to extend the cellars and redevelop at garden level, subject to the usual consents,’ says the estate agents’ blurb.
It adds: ‘[This] Ambassadorial house built in 1929 [is] set back from the road behind a topiary garden with gated driveway and double garage.
‘The house provides elegant entertaining rooms with a grand entrance hall and stairwell. The principal suite offers stunning views, and [the property] has an impressive, mature, south-facing, 75ft by 65ft, landscaped rear garden with summer house and swimming pool (currently not in use).’
It is a world away from Gervais’s working-class roots in the Reading suburb of Whiteley – but having made a fortune from TV shows such as The Office, for £12.5million, and has been on the market for £10.75million since September.
Potential buyers are said to have been put off by the high stamp duty – which would be £1.2million on the asking price – and the threat of Labour’s mansion tax. Ed Miliband has said owners of homes worth £2million to £3million will have to pay £250 a month to help fund the NHS. Sums for more expensive homes have not been announced, but experts estimate houses worth £10million to £15million could be taxed £41,000 a year.
Gervais moved to his current home from a rented flat in Bloomsbury in 2007, spending £2 million on the house and £1million on refurbishment.
A spokesman for estate agents Goldschmidt & Howland confirmed that the £10.75million house is for sale but said: ‘We never comment about our clients.’
And Gervais’s publicist said: ‘This is a private matter and I have nothing to add. This is private information.’