Overseas governments are benefitting from soaring property values in the UK capital, with embassies in London’s most affluent areas worth over £100m.
According to Lichfields and Spear magazine Japan, Germany, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands each have embassies worth more than £100m. The cheapest embassy, a £750,000 building in Gunnersbury, belongs to North Korea.
But Moscow gets the best deal. Its embassy, Harrington House on Kensington Palace Gardens, is easily worth £100m, but Russia pays just £1 a year rent for it. In return the UK pays one rouble a year for its embassy in Moscow.
Some nations may want to cash in. Lesotho, for sample, has a GDP of just £2.4bn, but an embassy on Chesham Place worth at least £5m.
Times, 44
