Ex-partner of sanctioned oligarch sells London flat for £26mn under original purchase price
The property in One Hyde Park had been held via a trust of which Natalia Rozhkova is listed as the beneficiary
The former partner of a sanctioned Russian oligarch has sold her flat in a luxury London building at a hefty discount.
Natalia Rozhkova, who dated Alexander Ponomarenko for several years, sold the property in One Hyde Park in September for £34.8mn to Israeli tech billionaire Oran Holtzman, according to Land Registry records and people familiar with the transaction.
The flat was originally purchased through an offshore company for more than £61.3mn in August 2011, according to property records.
The luxury Knightsbridge development has been a magnet for oligarchs and other super-rich buyers since it opened in 2009. Australian pop star Kylie Minogue has also owned a property there.
Brothers Christian Candy and Nick Candy — the latter of whom is now the Reform UK treasurer — were leading figures behind the project, which Sotheby’s says “is widely considered to be the world’s most exclusive apartment building”. In 2011, Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov spent £136.6mn on a penthouse at the development, at the time the most ever spent on a flat.
Ponomarenko, the former chair of Moscow’s largest airport, was sanctioned by the UK, European Union and the US in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The US Treasury in August that year said Ponomarenko was a “Putin enabler” who had “close ties to other oligarchs and the construction of Vladimir Putin’s seaside palace”.
Rozhkova and Ponomarenko, who have children together, broke up in 2016, said people familiar with the matter. A villa they co-owned in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France was frozen in 2022 by authorities.
A lawyer for Rozhkova said he had been assured that “Mr Ponomarenko, who had no economic interest in the apartment, will not receive any proceeds or economic benefit from the sale.”
He said: “The transaction took place in compliance with all formalities, laws, and regulations of the UK. All checks were carried out and all necessary approvals were received from the Landlord and other parties to the transaction.”
A lawyer for Holtzman said “appropriate due diligence was conducted in relation to the transaction and the purchase was properly completed in compliance with UK, US and EU sanctions laws”.
The flat had been held via a trust of which Rozhkova is listed as the beneficiary.
Representatives for Ponomarenko did not respond to requests for comment.
The sale comes against a beleaguered backdrop for prime central London property. Prices have fallen 24 per cent since their 2014 market peak, according to Savills, amid higher interest rates, stamp duty and the departure of wealthy people from the UK.
However James Forbes, co-founder of London property advisory firm Forbes Gilbert-Green, said sales activity in One Hyde Park was significantly higher than any other building in the capital in the past year.
He added: “Buyers for this building are looking to move in without having to do any work as the whole model is based on a hassle-free, 5-star full service.”
Because units were more than a decade old, some were being sold at lower prices because of the costs of refurbishment, as well as higher taxes and a more challenging market, he said.
Forbes sold a flat last December for about £50mn, down from the £57mn asking price, according to data provider LonRes, which tracks the city’s prime housing market.
Another apartment was listed at £45mn and is being sold out of receivership, according to people familiar with the sale. The price being paid is not yet public. It had originally been bought in 2011 for nearly £60mn by a company owned by the wife of Hong Kong property tycoon Pan Sutong.