A mansion overlooking Regent’s Park has sold for under ￡130mn, a discount of more than ￡50mn on its asking price, in a sign that rising development costs and the departure of wealthy Russian buyers are hitting the top of London’s housing market.Indian businessman Ajay Kalsi has struck a deal to buy 1-18 York Terrace East, a row of Grade-I listed homes spanning 95,000 square feet, according to four people with knowledge of the deal.

The cut-price sale ends a difficult chapter for the previous owners of the John Nash-designed property, while offering a rare insight into the challenges of operating at the secretive top end of the capital’s housing market.

Developer Zenprop bought the property in 2016, and the company’s chief executive Derrick Beare told the Financial Times in 2020 that his goal was to secure planning permission, renovate the 1820s block, extend the lease with freeholder The Crown Estate and sell up.