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The billionaire Poonawalla family have bought a £42mn building in London’s upmarket Grosvenor Square, around the corner from their Mayfair home, despite concerns that changes to the UK’s non-dom tax rules would put off wealthy international investors.
Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property company, which owns much of Mayfair, has granted a long lease on the building to Phinity Developers Ltd, a company controlled by Natasha Poonawalla, according to UK public records.
The deal, concluded in May, came in the same month that her husband, Adar Poonawalla, who leads the family’s vaccine business, told the Financial Times that the UK’s tax changes for wealthy non-doms would deter investors from the country.
“The policy should be such that it encourages . . . individuals to come and invest and stay in the UK . . . Instead of doing that, you’re making rules which would make people stay away,” he said.
Non-dom rules allow UK residents with a permanent home overseas to avoid UK tax on their international income and gains. The Labour government will abolish the regime in 2025, among a suite of tax changes hitting the UK’s wealthiest residents.
Adar Poonawalla told the FT in May that he did not spend enough time in the UK to be affected by non-dom rules, but that Natasha could lose the tax benefits. “Some people are willing to pay that cost like I am, but most others aren’t . . . They can easily move out,” he said.
Natasha Poonawalla is a fashion influencer and an executive director at the family’s Serum Institute of India, which manufactured hundreds of millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine — and has invested millions in vaccine research and production in Oxford.
38 Grosvenor Square is around the corner from Aberconway House, the more than 25,000 sq ft home the Poonawallas bought last year through a holding company for £138mn — making it the second most expensive home ever sold in London.
Built in 1727, and still featuring 18th century decorated ceilings in the style of Robert Adam, the Grosvenor Square property was an aristocratic townhouse and then the Indonesian embassy until 2017.
The property was advertised as a “blank canvas” for commercial redevelopment. The five-storey, 27,000 sq ft building has not had a full-time tenant for several years, but has been used to host events. It is described in marketing materials as one of the “last remaining buildings from the square’s original date of construction”.
Grosvenor declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Poonawalla family declined to comment.