Grehan London apartment for sale

The luxury London apartment at the centre of a row between bankrupt property developer, Ray Grehan and the National Asset Management Agency has gone on the market for more than £5 million.

The one-bedroom apartment is the first property in One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, the city’s most expensive residential development, to be repossessed.

Mr Grehan paid £3.7 million for the 988sq ft property in 2007, just months before the global financial crisis, subsequently selling it on to a trust that benefits his family.

Debts of €300m
However, the National Asset Management Agency, which is pursuing Mr Grehan over debts of £300 million that he left behind in Ireland's property crash, eventually forced him in July to reverse the sale.

It will now get 85 per cent of the outstanding sum left over after a mortgage held by Barclays Wealth and Investment Management is paid off.

The remaining money from the sale of the One Hyde Park apartment will go to Mr Grehan's wife, Geraldine, The Irish Times reported in July.

Although a multimillion property in its own right, the apartment is little more than a minnow in a development where larger apartments have gone for almost £150 million.

However, it should not take long to sell, since luxury central London properties have attracted an increasing premium ever since the financial crash.

Despite fears that a new property bubble has been created, there is little sign of a let-up, with the best properties now worth more than half again, compared with 2008.

Under-valued
Nama and Mr Grehan's bankruptcy trustees took a legal action against the Irish developer seeking to have the change of ownership reversed, arguing that it had been under-valued.

During proceedings before the High Court in London, Ms Grehan had opposed Nama’s reversal application, arguing that she had paid for some of the deposit on the property.