Rocketing price of Mandelson's old flat
A flat where Peter Mandelson lived before he was forced to resign over a home loan has just gone on the market.
The Georgian property in Wilmington Square, Bloomsbury, has an asking price of £695,000 - almost four times the £180,000 that the then trade and industry secretary received when he sold it in 1998.
Mr Mandelson, who is now European Trade Commissioner, lived in the white stucco, two-bedroom ground floor apartment with two bathrooms until he moved to Notting Hill, where he bought a house in Pembridge Villas for just under £250,000.
Later the same year, he was forced to resign from the Cabinet after accepting a £370,000 locan from paymaster general Geoffrey Robinson. Mr Mandelson had also obtained a £150,000 building society top-up mortgage to buy a home in Northumberland Place, Notting Hill, for £475,000.
In 2001, he sold the Pembridge Villas property for just under £550,000 and moved to Trafalgar Square, buying a penthouse for almost £700,000. He sold that for £1.2million and, in November last year, bought a three-bedroom home in Regent'd Park for £2.4million.
The Bloomsbury flat is expected to fetch its asking price.
A spokesman for estate agent Savills said: "It is a very pretty flat in a pleasant square. It has only just come on the market after a complete refurbishment but there is likely to be a lot of interest as properties in Wilmington Square don't frequently become available."
