Agents: We’ll sell derelict Mayfair house for £30m

It may be the middle of a recession and the property is derelict, but estate agents are confident of finding buyers for a £30 million Mayfair house which has just gone on the market.

The building, in Charles Street, is part of the troubled property empire of financier Simon Halabi, whose commercial portfolio of prestigious offices around London has been put into administration after being hit by the credit crisis.

But despite the straitened economic times, estate agents said today the £30.5 million asking price would be reached and the building had the potential to become "one of Mayfair's finest residences".

However, the Grade II listed, four-storey Georgian property is boarded up and in need of "complete modernisation".

Jonathan Hewlett, from Savills, one of two agents handling the sale, told The Times today: "This is a very special house with masses of potential. I am very confident we can sell it for the asking price."

He said a similar unmodernised house in Eaton Square recently sold for £33 million, and another in Charles Street went for £20 million. A buyer of the £30 million building would get 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and 10 reception rooms over a total space of 12,300 square feet, with an adjacent mews house.

It has been suggested Mr Halabi has been put under pressure to sell by Westminster council because of fears the property, one of six empty houses he owns around London, could be taken over by squatters, as have several other substantial buildings recently.

Mr Halabi, former owner of gym chain Esporta, is reported to have tried to buy back part of his property empire from joint administrators Ernst and Young and CB Richard Ellis.

The High Court put all his commercial properties into administration after they slumped to lower than the £1.15 billion loan secured against them.