According to the individual familiar with the matter, the Hotel Lambert, a property owned by Prince Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani, has been bought by French billionaire Xavier Niel for over 200 million euros ($226 million).
The marketing is one of the largest ever deals for some private property in Paris, and it is beating the past deal of 100 million euros paid for the Hotel de Soyecourt in 2011.
As per the person’s point of view, who hides his identity, the founder of telecom group, ‘Iliad SA’, was not planning to live in the 43,000 square foot townhouse, and instead of living in that house, he wanted to give the place for a cultural foundation.
The private mansion was built in 1640 by Louis Le Vau, a royal architect who contributed to the Versailles Palace. Based on the edge of the Ile Saint Louis, it is also called a gallery house, which is pained by Charles Le Brun, the decorator of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
Xavier Niel refused to comment, and representatives for the al-Thani family did not immediately respond to a comment request. House prices are streaming following the pandemic.
In 2021, at least 40 residential properties sold in the U.S. last year for more than $50 million. According to one report, in London, house prices are rising the quickest in at least two decades.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also cut all the taxes for the wealthy, removing one of the biggest deterrents for high earners thinking about working in France, which is the move that grabs the interest of high earners.
The addition of Hotel Lambert is perhaps Niel’s most major investment in real estate to date. According to Bloomberg’s Index, with a fortune of $8.4 billion, he already owns dozens of prestigious properties in Paris. He created Station F, a keen investor in startups, a giant incubator set in an old railway station.
A debate was sparked in 2009 when the Qatari comprehensive renovation plan of the Lambert was made public, including a car lift that was later abandoned.
According to Le Figaro, in 2013, a fire forced the property owner to conduct another round of significant renovations for a total cost of as much as 130 million euros.