Tom Ford knows how to spend his billions. Two years after he sold his eponymous label for a whopping $2.8 billion, Ford just inked another big deal: a pricey piece of London real estate. According to reports, the retired designer is the new owner of a property in the British capital’s posh Chelsea district. Its £80 million ($104 million) price tag is believed to be the United Kingdom’s biggest residential real estate transaction of 2024 so far.
Although the exact whereabouts of Ford’s new pad haven’t been publicized (he likely prefers it that way) reports indicate that the property is “a white stucco-fronted mansion in a garden square.” It is nestled between Hyde Park and the north bank of the River Thames and was purchased by its previous owner for £16 million nearly two decades ago.
Ford allegedly came into ownership of the house this summer after he decided to sell another home in the equally fancy neighborhood of Regent’s Park. Ford (and other wealthy expats) supposedly rushed his real estate deal ahead of the government’s new budget which raised taxes on homes purchased at a certain price point.
Ford’s London pad is just the latest addition to his portfolio of international real estate that’s reportedly valued at over $300 million. In August 2023, Ford purchased former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s Hamptons estate for $52 million.
The 8,500-square-foot mansion was built in 1917 by architect Arthur C. Jackson and was nicknamed “Lasata” which means “place of peace” in the region’s native Algonquian language by the Bouviers. The family purchased the home in 1925 (Jackie would vacation there until her pre-teens) before it made its way to former Coach Creative Director Reed Krakoff and his wife, Delphine, who bought the estate for $20 million in 2006.
In addition to his properties in London and The Hamptons, Ford is also the proud owner of a Palm Beach mansion (its $55 million tag made it the largest non-waterfront sale in the island’s history) and the former Manhattan townhouse of the legendary designer, Halston. Ford coughed up $18 million for the latter, an eclectic Upper East Side townhouse that he has been renovating the space in the years since.
Clearly, Ford is spending his time away from the fashion world quite well.