Canada’s Wealthiest Family Buys £25 Million London Mansion

Photo: Bloomberg

A member of the billionaire family that controls Thomson Reuters has agreed to purchase an apartment in London’s Mayfair for £25 million ($34 million), Bloomberg reports. The deal ranks among the largest in 2025 and reflects continued interest from wealthy North American buyers in London’s prime property segment, even amid a broader market slowdown.

The buyer’s identity has not been disclosed. The flat occupies an entire floor near Grosvenor Square, and the final price was almost identical to the asking price. The transaction was brokered by Knight Frank. The Thomson family, Canada’s largest private media owner, continues to expand its assets in the UK. The empire was founded nearly a century ago by Roy Thomson, who started with a radio station in Canada before expanding into television and over 200 print publications.

Thomson Reuters shares have risen about 20% in Toronto this year, almost twice the S&P/TSX Composite’s growth, boosting the family’s combined fortune to $106 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Six members of the family rank among the world’s 500 wealthiest, including 68-year-old David Thomson, the 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet and chairman of the media group, and his 60-year-old brother Peter. Both head Woodbridge Co., the holding company managing the family’s stake in Thomson Reuters and The Globe and Mail.



This purchase joins a series of high-value acquisitions in London’s luxury property market by North Americans. Last summer, US designer Tom Ford bought a Chelsea house for over £80 million. In April 2025, a £22 million ($30 million) Notting Hill mansion purchase was registered to Matt Cohler, a LinkedIn co-founder and early Facebook executive. Cohler, a former Uber Technologies Inc. board member, is now an independent director at New York-based KKR & Co. In 2024, his nonprofit Pacific Environmental Coalition donated at least $200,000 to Nikki Haley’s campaign to block Donald Trump’s return to the White House, later backing the Never Trump conservatives supporting Kamala Harris.

Broker Peter Wetherell noted that the US election results have triggered a wave of inquiries from affluent American buyers looking for London homes. Beauchamp Estates data shows that during Trump’s previous presidency, the number of Americans buying London homes worth over £15 million was about 20% higher than in Barack Obama’s second term.



According to LonRes, this summer Americans were the only international group to drive year-on-year demand growth in London real estate. Knight Frank reports that the share of US buyers in the capital rose from 3.3% in H2 2024 to 6.1% in January–June 2025 – the second-largest increase for similar periods in the past 12 years. Henley & Partners analysts say American interest in London began growing in 2020, as the pandemic pushed wealthy US citizens to expand their portfolios of citizenships and residency rights amid global uncertainty.

A decade ago, London’s prime market was booming, but now faces decline due to higher stamp duty and the abolition of non-domiciled tax perks for wealthy foreign residents. Prices for luxury homes in London have fallen more than 20% from peak levels. A Mayfair penthouse once priced at £100 million is now listed at £68 million. The 60 Curzon project, which Chinese investors once hailed as “Mayfair’s most exclusive address” in 2015, has gone bankrupt, with half its flats still unsold. At The Bryanston by Hyde Park, only half of the 54 apartments have sold in four years.



Paul Finch of Beauchamp Estates believes the days of rapid growth are over, with project margins now minimal. Developers face rising costs and weaker demand, with longer listing times and fewer quick deals, especially in the ultra-prime segment. In May, listings of homes priced above £5 million rose 22%, while demand fell 15%. Price reductions in this segment jumped 45% year-on-year in January–May 2025.

Broker Charles McDowell noted that many clients are waiting for tax clarity, with his agency launching a luxury rental division. LonRes research head Nick Gregory adds that there are many motivated sellers, but offers often fail to meet buyers’ expectations on price or features. Further pressure comes from anti-money laundering measures and sanctions on wealthy Russians, once key players in the prime segment.

ONS and Hamptons data show that over the past decade, London’s house price growth has lagged behind other UK regions, undermining its status as an investment hub. Savills estimates that since 2014, central London property prices have dropped 21%, while Knight Frank’s sales index is down 19% from its August 2015 peak. Savills forecasts another 4% decline in central London prices by year-end, while Black Brick expects an 8–10% drop.