After languishing on the real estate market for nearly two years, the Canadian government has finally sold its lavish estate on Oslo’s posh Bygdøy peninsula. The property has served as the home of the Canadian ambassador to Norway and developers want to build expensive homes around its large park-like garden.
Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported that Erik Braathen, heir to the former Braathens SAFE domestic airline that his family sold to SAS, and investor Tore Eiklid have agreed to buy the roughly four-acre property with its huge 1,500-square-meter mansion. The property was initially put up for sale in June 2012, with an asking price of NOK 120 million (USD 20 million at current exchange rates). Real estate brokers at the time claimed the price was too high, even in Oslo’s overheated real estate market, not least because the property does not extend to the fjord. It was decidedly the most expensive property on the market at the time.
After no buyers came forward, the asking price was trimmed to NOK 110 million in February 2013. It still failed to attract buyers, until Braathen and Eiklid cut their deal. Eiklid told DN that the pair offered less than the asking price, but wouldn’t reveal the agreed price until the deal is completed.
The pair plan to build 18 expensive condominium homes spread over six buildings on the perimeter of the large garden, pending regulatory approval. The main house and an adjacent house are expected to remain intact, but neither Braathen nor Eiklid expect to move in. “It’s a bit un-Norwegian to live in a 1500-square meter (roughtly 15,000 square feet) mansion,” Eiklid told DN.
newsinenglish.no staff