Tom Ford is once again making waves beyond fashion, this time with a splash in the luxury real estate world. The celebrated designer, who sold his namesake brand to Estée Lauder for a staggering $2.8 billion, recently set a record in the U.K. by purchasing the most expensive home of the year: an opulent £80 million (roughly $104 million) residence in London. This property, reported by The Times as a white stucco-fronted mansion, resides in Chelsea, one of London’s most prestigious neighborhoods near Hyde Park and the Thames, but details of Ford’s new estate remain largely confidential. The home’s previous sale price two decades ago was only £16 million (around $20 million), highlighting the steep appreciation in London’s prime real estate market.
Ford’s taste in prime properties is no secret. Earlier, he sold another high-profile London property in Regent’s Park for a sizable eight-figure sum, boosting the estimated value of his real estate portfolio to over £270 million (around $351 million). Beyond the U.K., Ford’s collection includes the Hamptons estate Lasata, famously Jackie Kennedy’s childhood summer home, which Ford purchased in 2023 for $52 million. Spanning seven lush acres, this East Hampton sanctuary includes an eight-bedroom main house, a guest cottage, and a vintage three-car garage. It has traded hands among elite owners like Reed Krakoff, fashion designer and executive, and media producer David Zander.
London’s luxury housing market has slowed in 2024, with fewer ultra-wealthy buyers making purchases. Only 149 properties priced at £10 million ($13.2 million) or higher have sold in the past year, down from 192 previously. However, the weak pound has enticed international buyers, particularly Americans, whose purchases of prime London properties increased significantly this year. In fact, a report by real estate firm Knight Frank noted that U.S. buyers accounted for 6.1 percent of London’s luxury property sales in the first half of 2024, nearly double their presence in late 2023.
Despite a softened market, experts like Knight Frank’s Paddy Dring affirm that London’s super-prime real estate continues to draw global interest. “It’s sometimes easy to forget just how attractive London is on the global stage,” Dring observed, noting that high-net-worth individuals continue to view the city as a premier destination. For Ford, this record-breaking purchase in Chelsea adds yet another gem to his remarkable portfolio, affirming his commitment to high-end real estate as much as to high fashion.
