$185.5M London penthouse is UK’s second-priciest sale this year

A palatial penthouse at a storied address in London’s Mayfair neighborhood has sold for £140 million (or $185.5 million), making it the second-priciest deal of the year in the U.K.

Lodha U.K., the developer behind the luxury residential project 1 Grosvenor Square, announced that the deal was finalized “very recently,” Mansion Global reported.

Lodha would not elaborate on details of the deal, nor the identity of the buyer. There are reports that the buyer also bought two other units with plans to combine all three.

The developer is set to complete the 44-unit property next month.

The deal was eclipsed this year by Cheung Chung-kiu’s £200 million (or about $262.6 million) purchase of a 45-room mansion in Knightsbridge in January. That deal was the most expensive ever recorded in either the U.K. or the U.S.

That 84-year-old building at 1 Grosvenor Square served as the U.S. Embassy in London from 1938 through 1960, when the mission moved to another building nearby. The Canadian government purchased the property, and ended up selling it to Lodha in 2013.

The developer demolished most of the building, but kept its facade to install onto the new residential project. [Mansion Global] — Dennis Lynch