Billionaire vaccine maker Adar Poonawalla to buy most expensive house in London. Here's how much it will cost

Indian billionaireAdar Poonawalla, the CEO ofSerum Institute of India (SII), has closed a deal to buy a 25,000-square-foot Aberconway House in Mayfair, London priced at $174 million, according to a Financial Times report.

The sprawling 1920s property,located near Hyde Park is expected to be the most expensive home sale of the year and the second-most expensive overall.

The property will be acquired by Serum Life Scenes, a British subsidiary of SII - the largest vaccine maker in the world, based in Pune.Dominika Kulczyk, the daughter of the late businessman Jan Kulczyk who was Poland's richest man will reportedly sell the property to Poonawalla.

The property is named afterHenry Duncan McLaren, Baron Aberconway, a turn-of-the-century industrialist who built the Grosvenor Square mansion.

The publication, citing a source said the Poonawalla family had no immediate plan to move to the UK permanently but the "house will serve as a base for the company and the family when they are in the UK".

Adar Poonawalla's investments

Poonawalla oversees the working of SII which manufactured Covishield,the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He tookover the position in the company from his father in 2011.

Notably, the newly bought property by the Poonawalla family follows themultimillion-pound investments in vaccine research and manufacturing facilities near Oxford.

In 2021, the family donated over $60 million to Oxford University for a newPoonawalla Vaccines Research Building.

The most expensive residential property ever sold in the UK remains the2-8a Rutland Gate which was sold for a record-breaking $263million to Hui Ka Yan, the founder and chair of Evergrande.

(With inputs from agencies)