Tycoon sells up to escape Barratt homes

Not everyone wants to live next door to a new Barratt home - and it seems billionaire Lakshmi Mittal is among them.

As the housebuilder prepares to launch the first flats in a development in The Bishop's Avenue, Hampstead, next week, the steel tycoon has decided to sell his home, which is adjacent to the site.

He has placed his property, Summer Palace, on the market with two estate agents with an asking price of £40 million - considerably more than the £4 million to £11 million for one of the Barratt flats.

The 12 apartments are in a new building called Allingham Court at No44 in the road known locally as Millionaires Row.

The property being sold by Mr Mittal is across the road from Toprak Mansion, which was recently renamed Royal Mansion and sold to a Kazakh family for £41 million, having been on the market for two years.

The flats are nearing completion despite lengthy opposition from not only Mr Mittal but also from Barnet council. The businessman's fight began more than three years ago when the then owner of No 44, which had been standing empty for more than a decade, applied to redevelop it. She was Princess Samerah Bint Mokhtar Al-Saadawi, whose son, Prince Mokhtar Al-Saadawi, is third in line to the Saudi Arabian throne and the country's defence minister.

Mr Mittal lodged objections with the council, which rejected the plans, saying they were in breach of development policies for the area.

The princess's application was withdrawn and at the end of 2005 she sold the site to Barratt Homes for just under £19 million.

The company applied for a smaller block of flats and permission was granted in September 2006, despite Mr Mittal objecting again.

The flats are being launched as "truly luxurious and exclusive" with communal facilities, including a 24-hour concierge service, an indoor swimming pool and fitness suite, landscaped grounds with water features and underground car parking. Each apartment is described as having "sumptuous living space", with "marble, granite and limestone evident throughout".

A Barratt Homes spokeswoman said: "Purchasers can expect a level of service encountered only in the best hotels... and the whole complex is secured by electronic gates."

The asking price for Mr Mittal's house equates to £2,222 per square foot, a record for the area.

Toprak Mansion was sold for a slightly higher price but is far bigger, so the price per square foot was only £1,464.

The values of the Barratt flats fall between these two. The smallest will cost £1,600 per square foot and the biggest penthouse £1,800.

Mr Mittal's steel and glass home has nine bedroom suites, a staff flat, five reception rooms, a glass lift and an indoor swimming pool.

Trevor Abrahmsohn of Glentree Estates, which is selling it, said: "The Bishop's Avenue is a global name. It is well known to the international wealthy and for them to have a house here is the ultimate status symbol."