Anders Fernstedt, a Swedish man, has been living on the porch of 2-8A Rutland Gate, once Britain's most expensive house, for three years. The property, valued at £210m in 2020, has 45 rooms, four lifts, an indoor pool, and 116 windows, yet remains empty. Fernstedt's makeshift tent, constructed from umbrellas, is cluttered with baskets, books, teddy bears, and flowers. He complains about noise from Lamborghinis passing by, and has to urinate into a plastic bottle due to lack of facilities.
The house was originally a row of terraced houses in Knightsbridge, converted into a single palace by billionaire Rafik Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon, in the early 1980s. Hariri lived there with gold-leaf wastepaper bins and jewel-encrusted bathrooms until his assassination in 2005. The property then passed to Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and after his death in 2011, its contents were auctioned in 2015.
In 2020, the house was sold for a record £210m, reportedly to Hong Kong billionaire Cheung Chung-kiu, though the Financial Times later revealed the true buyer was Hui Ka Yan, founder of Evergrande, China's then-richest man. After Evergrande defaulted on debts in 2021, the property was put back on sale in 2022 for £200m, with planning permission for expansion including a larger pool and underground car park.
Fernstedt's presence highlights the stark contrast between extreme wealth and homelessness in London. He says, 'It's ironic that such a huge, empty house exists while people sleep on the streets.' The property's ownership remains opaque, often hidden through offshore companies, as researcher Jonathan Bourne noted in a study on the challenges of understanding such investments.
