A £20m property has been seized in what is thought to be Britain’s biggest-ever house repossession.
Cevdet Caner, a 35-year-old property magnate whose business empire collapsed with debts of £1.2 billion, bought the seven-bedroom house in Mayfair, central London, for £16m in July 2007. He refurbished the 11,250 sq ft property at a reported cost of £6m.
His business, however, fell victim to the housing slump and went into administration in September. Last Thursday, bailiffs acting for Investec, the investment bank, repossessed the property.
Hamptons International, joint agent for the house with Sotheby’s, will this week put it on the market for £20m. A spokeswoman said: “It is highly unusual for a property at the top end of the residential market like this to be repossessed. This is the largest repossession we have seen.”
Caner, an Austrian citizen of Kurdish origin, was once described as the “enfant terrible” of Austria’s financial markets. The businessman, who lives between London and Linz in Austria, acquired low-cost homes and social housing in German cities including Frankfurt in 2005 and 2006.
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Level One, his group, owned nearly 28,000 residential and 403 commercial properties in Germany. It went into administration last year.
The house, which includes a swimming pool, was put on the market in December but after a dispute with Caner the receiver had to apply for a repossession order, which was granted last month. Caner moved out two weeks ago.
Jon Gershinson, the receiver, said: “It’s a stunning property in one of the best sites in Mayfair.”
The value of the house is nearly twice that of Britain’s previous biggest repossession. In September last year, Robert Bonnier, 38, had his £11m London home seized by banks.
Caner told the Bloomberg news agency he had approached Investec twice with an offer to repay the mortgage. He blames the banks for Level One’s insolvency. He said: “I made an offer by which they recovered all the monies, which they rejected.”