Music legend Sting has reportedly sold one of his London homes for a whopping £19m.
It represents a massive £13.3m profit for the Wallsend-born singer, who bought the nine-bedroom Grade-I listed home in Queen Anne’s Gate in 2003 from former Labour MP Shaun Woodward for £5.7m.
Local estate agent Kirsty Sugden, from Hathaways, said: “Properties in this historic enclave are being developed into increasingly luxurious residences, with price tags reflecting the evolving status of the area as a prime location.”
The sale works out at an annual profit of over £1m profit and for that sum he could have bought, at today’s prices, 10 houses every year in his native North Tyneside home town where house prices average £118,000.
Sting, 63, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, has come a long way since he was raised in Station Road, Wallsend, where a semi-detached home recently sold for £135,000.
The son of a milkman dad and hairdresser mum, he has an estimated £180m fortune and reportedly reached a deal with the unknown buyer earlier this week for the 18th century property.
The house, which has six bathrooms and five reception rooms and is near Downing Street, eventually sold for more than £4m over the asking price after being on the market for a year.
It is one of a number of luxury homes owned by Sting and his wife Trudie who have been married for 13 years.
They include a 900-acre estate in Tuscany near Florence, where staff produce his own brands of olive oil, wine and salami; a £17m duplex apartment in Manhattan; and a beach-front Malibu home which he bought for £3.9m in 1998.
Their English properties include a £2m farmhouse in the Lake District and a £7m 800-acre estate in Wiltshire.
Last year, Sting also bought a luxury apartment at the £8bn redevelopment of Battersea Power Station.
Homes at the development range from £590,000 for a one-bedroom flat up to £3.2m for a four-bedroom apartment.
Despite their dad’s fortune, Sting’s children are not guaranteed to inherit it as he has claimed that passing on vast sums to your offspring can do more harm than good.
In an interview last year the singer, who has three sons and three daughters, said he did not want “to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks”.
“They have to work,” he reportedly said. “All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I appreciate.
“Obviously, if they were in trouble I would help them, but I’ve never really had to do that. They have this work ethic that makes them want to succeed on their own merit.”
Sting insisted there would in fact not be a huge fortune left for his children, who are aged between 18 and 37.
He said: “I told them there won’t be much money left because we are spending it. We have a lot of commitments. What comes in we spend, and there isn’t much left.”