Some homeowners who are renovating continue to live in their properties while builders work around them.
Others might rent a cheap flat around the corner. However, Gordon Ramsay has offered an insight into how the super-rich do home renovations.
The Daily Mail can reveal that Ramsay has just sold a house in south London for £7.75m (he bought it last year for £7.5m) so that his family would have somewhere to live while his main residence, less than a mile away, was undergoing improvements.
Although the celebrity chef made a £250,000 profit on the sale, that figure is small compared with more than £1 million in stamp duty he would have paid when he bought the five-bedroom Edwardian home in January last year.
A family friend confirms: “This property was sold a few months ago when renovations were completed on the family home.”
Gordon Ramsay pictured with his wife Tana in September 2019 on the red carpet.
Pictured: The house the family only used for a short time despite having bought it for over £7m
Pictured: The family’s main home in South London, which was undergoing renovation.
Land registry documents reveal the house was sold in May. The new owner is believed to be the director of an energy company.
Ramsay bought the house from Gina Coladangelo, girlfriend of former health secretary Matt Hancock, and her ex-husband, retail boss Oliver Tress.
The price paid by the foul-mouthed chef shocked the locals.
Not only was it almost double the £3.8m that Ms Coladangelo and Mr Tress paid in 2015, it was £2.5m more than the previous top price paid for any property on their street. The premium is said to be because Mr Tress and Ms Coladangelo had a basement extension made which included an underground swimming pool.
Mr Tress, who founded the Oliver Bonas retail chain, split with Ms Coladangelo after CCTV footage was released of her kissing and hugging Mr Hancock in his Whitehall office in breach of Covid distancing restrictions, prompting him to resign as health secretary.
Mrs Coladangelo, who has three children with Mr Tress, was working for Mr Hancock as an assistant at the time. Mr Ramsay, 57, who is worth an estimated £180m, has added his own basement to his family’s main home, which he and his wife Tana, 50, bought in 2002 for £2.8m. It is now believed to be worth £7m.
Improvements include a wine store and a master bedroom suite that occupies an entire floor.
In the basement, the chef has space for another en-suite bedroom, a study, a machine room, a boot room and a shower room.
Ramsay pictured on the TV show Hells Kitchen in 2013
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has just sold a house in South London for £7.75m (he bought it last year for £7.5m).
Holly Ramsay, 24, pictured with her fiancé, swimming champion Adam Peaty
The couple have six children, including Holly, 24, who recently announced her engagement to Olympic swimming star Adam Peaty, 29.
In 2021, Ramsay sold one of his holiday homes in Cornwall for £7.5m in what is believed to be the most expensive sale ever recorded in the county. He paid £4.4m for Daymer Bay House in Trebetherick in 2016. It has six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a swimming pool and a tennis court set in 2.5 acres of grounds.
Ramsay, who also owns another property in Cornwall, was criticised for saying he disliked locals (some of whom had complained about his redevelopment plans in the past) but loved the county.
“Believe me, I love Cornwall, but I can’t stand Cornwall,” he said.
Asked about the comment, he added: “I promise, I meant it.”
A spokesman for Ramsay, star of cooking shows including Hell’s Kitchen and The F Word, said he had “made these tongue-in-cheek comments many, many times.”