Billionaire Thomson family to buy $43m luxury London apartment
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London’s luxury property market has seen steep discounts in 2025.
PHOTO: EPA
LONDON - A member of the multi-billionaire family behind Thomson Reuters Corp agreed to buy a high-end London apartment for about £25 million (S$43.3 million), in the latest sign of North Americans bolstering the city’s luxury market.
The Thomson family member – whose exact identity is unclear – agreed to purchase the sprawling single-level flat in Mayfair earlier in 2025, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information is private. A representative for the Thomson family did not respond to a request for comment.
The deal, one of London’s most expensive in 2025, is the latest example of how interest from wealthy individuals from across the Atlantic is proving to be a consolation for the London luxury market in the midst of a slump.
Silicon Valley investor Matt Cohler bought a detached house in Notting Hill for roughly £22 million at the end of April, while American billionaire Tom Ford purchased a Chelsea mansion for more than £80 million in summer 2024, in one of the top transactions of 2024.
The latest is by Canada’s richest family as it boosts its UK investments on a surging fortune. The dynasty’s namesake media empire traces back almost a century to the late patriarch Roy Thomson opening a radio station in Canada before it expanded into television and more than 200 print titles. Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News, competes with Thomson Reuters in providing news and services.
Thomson Reuters’ shares rose roughly 20 per cent in Toronto in 2025 through July 21 on the back of reporting strong earnings, almost double the gains posted by Canada’s benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index. That’s helped push the Thomson dynasty’s combined fortunes to about US$106 billion, with six members of the family ranked among the world’s richest 500, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Those family members include the third Baron Thomson of Fleet David Thomson, 68, who serves as chairman of the dynasty’s media empire. He and his younger brother Peter, 60, also chair Woodbridge Co, the entity that controls their family’s stake in their Toronto-based media firm along with Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.
The Thomson family member’s new purchase – a stone’s throw from Mayfair’s famous Grosvenor Square – was agreed broadly in line with the asking price, one of the people said. Knight Frank, the real estate agent which brokered the deal, declined to comment.
London’s luxury property market has seen steep discounts in 2025 after stamp duty increases and the abolition of a preferential tax status enjoyed by ultra-rich foreign residents hammered demand. There were 45 per cent more price reductions on £5 million-plus properties between January and May than the same period in 2024, data from researcher LonRes show.
Still, a handful of mega-deals defied the slump over the past year, including several transactions in Mayfair. Chelsea FC co-owner Behdad Eghbali bought a luxury penthouse in the district in summer 2024, while the former Icelandic embassy on the high-end Park Street sold for £22 million earlier in 2025. BLOOMBERG
