Abramovich plans to convert nine apartments in Lowndes Square in Knightsbridge into an eight-bedroom "palace," the paper said. The apartments, which are located close to London's famous Harvey Nichols department store, were individually bought by the Russian tycoon as they went up for sale.

A property expert was cited by The Daily Mail as saying "I knew he was buyin

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g property in the square. But I didn't realize all of them were in these two buildings. He was obviously determined to acquire them and just waited patiently until, one by one, they came on the market."

The original building was designed in the 1830s by well-known builder Thomas Cubitt, who worked on a number of projects in London's Belgravia, as well as the east front of Buckingham Palace.

At the same time, Chelsea and Kensington council has placed a number of restrictions on Abramovich's new London home, the paper said.

Strict planning conditions include the requirement to use identical materials to those used in the original building with all the work "to match the existing original." The work will also be subject to strict noise limits, the paper said.

But building consultant John Martin Robinson, told The Daily Mail that the proposed work would be a real improvement on the current building and "reintroduce a grand town house" to the square reviving "some of the original early Victorian glamour."

Abramovich, 41, who is rumored to have recently proposed to his girlfriend Daria Zhukova, 26, has hired famous British neoclassical architect John Simpson to design the property.

Abramovich, who spends most of his time in the U.K., has for several years now been second on the list of Britain's wealthiest people compiled annually by The Sunday Times. His fortune is estimated at 11.7 billion pounds (around $23 billion).

LONDON, August 12 (RIA Novosti)