Roman plans £150m palace

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is set to become the owner of the most expensive house ever built in London.

The super wealthy proprietor of Chelsea Football Club - The Sunday Times Rich List puts his personal worth at £11.7bn - is planning an eight-storey building in Lowndes Square, a stone’s throw from Harrods and one of the best addresses in the city. The house will be created out of two stucco-fronted townhouses - formerly nine individual apartments which he has been buying up since the late Nineties for a total value believed to be £20m. When completed it will be worth £150m.

Russian opulence will dictate the style of the new development. "There will be nothing minimalist about his taste," says a source close to the Russian. "He wants a very plush interior in the style of high neo-classical Victoriana to match the exterior... inside will be all cornices, thick pile carpeting and heavy drapery."

Abramovich already owns a luxury flat in London's Battersea, a 420-acre estate in West Sussex, holiday homes in the south of France, Tuscany and Montenegro and a home in Moscow. However, the scale of this latest development is causing some to speculate the Russian is planning to settle permanently in London with his girlfriend, Russian heiress and fashion designer Daria Zhukova.