A Chinese property tycoon is creating a gargantuan palace potentially worth almost $1 billion in one of London's most exclusive neighbourhoods.
Cheung Chung-kiu, a Hong Kong-based billionaire, has been given permission to develop an eight-storey, 5760-square metre property which overlooks iconic Hyde Park.
Experts have predicted the sprawling building, which will undergo extensive renovations, could be worth $942 million when complete, making it Britain's most expensive private home.
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The 2-8A Rutland Gate mansion in Knightsbridge currently has 45 rooms and is fitted with 116 bulletproof windows.
Earlier this year Mr Cheung bought the property for $520 million from the estate of Saudi Arabia's late crown prince, Nayef bin Abdulaziz, who had made the 45-room period building his private residence.
Mr Cheung's grand plan to refurb the mansion to the tune of $500 million on top of the already eye-watering price tag comes just months after Westminster Council moved to ban super-size homes in the affluent London pocket.
Westminster Council, which includes the plush neighbourhoods Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Belgravia, imposed the ban as it sought to create more homes for what it said was "real people" - not oligarchs and the global elite.
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But in the case of Mr Cheung's grand design, Westminster Council claimed its hands were tied, because the Rutland Gate mansion is already designated a single dwelling.
After bin Abdulaziz died in 2011, plans were made to cut the prime block into 13 apartments, but they were never built.
Instead, the huge mansion, which was originally constructed as four family homes in the 1860s, has sat vacant for 10 years.
In his application Mr Cheung's developers described the property as "dilapidated" and said he wanted to "undertake works of repair, refurbishment and alteration to return the building into beneficial use" as his London family home.
Plans presented to Westminster Council revealed the property will have a triple-height ballroom, an Olympic-size swimming pool and a two-level basement for Mr Cheung's collection of luxury cars.
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Mr Cheung is the chairman of property development company CC Land, which bought the Cheesegrater skyscraper in London for $2.17 billion in 2017.
Known as CC to his friends, Mr Cheung's net worth is estimated between $1.7 - $2.7 billion.
