George Michael’s abandoned home lies in ruin after urgent plea
George Michael’s only surviving sibling is attempting to save his London home which has fallen into ruin since the singer’s death on Christmas Day 2016 at the age of 53.
According to reports, Yioda Panayiotou has begged for the council’s permission to fell or heavily prune nine trees, which have become a threat to the property but are situated in the Conservation Area as the late singer’s £10m home lies in ruins.
She and George’s other sister Melanie inherited the property in his will but tragically Melanie died just three years after her brother at the age of 59 after falling into a diabetic coma.
As the sole owner Yioda is now trying to restore the home to it’s former glory after years of neglect.
She was previously given the green light for works by the local council after architects BB Partnership proposed a number of changes to the property which was built in 1976.
In pictures obtained by The Sun, reports suggest they have plans to change the garage connected to the house into a “habitable space”, lowering the front patio area and introducing new patio doors to the terrace and new rear decking to wrap around up to the bedroom.
A second application approved last year showed proposed external changes including replacing the existing ribbed metal roof and installing new double-glazed windows.
A roof-mounted water tank was also to be removed and solar panels fitted. Work appears to have begun as scaffolding has now been erected all around the property.
This latest application was submitted by landscape designers who want to fell or heavily prune nine trees, which have become a threat to the property but are situated in the Conservation Area.
The propsosal includes flattening a “leaning” eight-metre high holly and an 11-metre evergreen thuja tree, which is “growing within close proximity of the building” as well as a 13-metre mature Leyland cypress, which is “fast growing” and in “fairly close proximity to the building”.
They have also requested permission to trim a massive sycamore which is hangs over the property’s garages reducing it from it’s current 18 metre size, and to remove dead wood.
George bought the property in 1987 and lived in it for a number of years. When he moved out to spend more time at his other London home, a Highgate mansion, and his country estate in Goring, Berkshire, the once imposing property fell into disrepair.
In 2002, burglars ransacked the home and stole jewellery, designer clothes and paintings, as well as family heirlooms left to the singer by his beloved mother, who died of cancer in 1997. They made their getaway in George’s Aston Martin DB7.
