The Duke of Westminster (Property Owner) - Information, Featured Articles, London's Movers & Shakers

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The Duke of Westminster (Property Owner)

The soaring property market in central London is extremely good news for Westminster, 49, owner of 300 fabulous acres in Mayfair and Belgravia, the core of his fortune. The 1998 accounts of his main holding company - Grosvenor Estate Holdings - show a sharp rise in assets to almost £1.5 billion.

This includes a collection of North American and Far Eastern properties worth about £450 million, which values its London holdings at about £1 billion, but, crucially, Grosvenor Estate's London assets run only to the 100 acres around Mayfair. The much larger 200-acre Belgravia estate is held separately by Westminster's private trusts, though managed for him by Grosvenor Estate.

Property experts reckon those 200 acres in Belgravia could be valued on a par with the Mayfair property, which would put a £2 billion price tag on them. We are more cautious and believe a £1.5 billion valuation is more appropriate.

In addition, Westminster and his private trusts separately hold about another £450 million of Far Eastern and North American assets. In total, the Westminster commercial portfolio is now easily worth £3.4 billion.

But Westminster also has extensive personal assets such as art, his 11,500-acre Eaton Hall estate in Cheshire and his forests and shooting estates in Scotland and Lancashire. Nor must we forget a vast tract of Co Fermanagh. In all, Westminster is probably worth around £3.75 billion.

He is not resting on his laurels, however, and Grosvenor Estate has been busy establishing joint ventures with leading property groups around the world.

This does not mean Westminster is obsessed with money, as he readily acknowledges that responsibility comes with great wealth and takes an active part in numerous charities