Property

Jack Ma's wife buys former Italian embassy in London for £19.5m

The luxurious villa acquired by Cathy Ying Zhang adds to the foreign real estate portfolio of the family of the Chinese billionaire founder of Alibaba

11 November 2025

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The family of Jack Ma, the Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Alibaba, has expanded its international real estate portfolio with the purchase of a London villa that once housed the Italian embassy.

According to English land registry records and people with knowledge of the deal, Cathy Ying Zhang, the billionaire's wife, bought the Belgravia house for £19.5 million last autumn.

The property adds to the family's extensive property portfolio beyond China's borders. After raising the ire of top Chinese officials in 2020, Jack Ma spent most of his time abroad, keeping a low profile and living in Tokyo for a while.

Residence with high security standards

This Grade II listed townhouse was used as the Italian Embassy in the 1920s and also served as the office of the Italian Defence Attaché. At 7,948 square feet, it has since been converted into a residence and, according to advertising materials viewed by the Financial Times, has a cinema, a lift and six bedrooms. Asking price: £21.5 million.

According to data provider LonRes, which monitors the city's prime property market, the purchase price places it as the 34th most expensive transaction in London last year. This puts it in the top 0.4 per cent of the most expensive transactions in 2024.

The villa came under the spotlight last year when it was put on the market and then again when it was sold, sparking a series of speculations about the identity of the buyer.

Last year, one of the selling agents, Beauchamp Estates, said the buyer was attracted by the house's 'prestigious location' and 'high levels of security', but did not name them. The buyer was named in a document provided to the Financial Times by SourceMaterial, an investigative journalism organisation.

Other investment properties

Ma's family has expanded its property collection globally. Last year Zhang paid around 45 million Singapore dollars for three adjacent shophouses in Singapore, the Financial Times reported earlier, citing documents filed with the government.

He is the sole shareholder of a Hong Kong company that Ma used to buy a château and vineyards in France, the Financial Times reported. The family also bought a luxurious home on Hong Kong's Victoria Peak in 2015 through a chain of British Virgin Islands companies, once owned by the Belgian government and used as a consul's residence. After largely demolishing the original structure, Ma spent years building a new mansion on the site overlooking Victoria Harbour.

Although Ma has withdrawn from his travels on the world stage, and his high-profile meetings with world leaders have been frowned upon in Beijing, he has continued to buy real estate.

Alibaba nel mirino, il fondatore Jack Ma "sparito" da ottobre

In 2015, Ma spent $23 million on a 28,100-acre property in the Adirondacks of New York, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ma's spokesperson said at the time that he bought the property, which included creeks, a stable and a maple syrup production company, mainly for conservation purposes. Contacted by the Financial Times, Alibaba and the Jack Ma Foundation declined to comment on behalf of Ma and Zhang.

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