Inside ex-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s secret new life in Istanbul

Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is laying low in a £20million Istanbul mansion that he is renting for £40,000 a month, a new report has claimed. 

Little has been known about the whereabouts of the Russian billionaire since he was sanctioned over his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin and was made to sell Chelsea. 

A new report from the Mirror has claimed that Abramovich is now living in the rich neighbourhood of Istanbul called Anadolu Hisari in a home overlooking the Bosporus Strait.

It is claimed that Abramovich is renting a property from prominent stock market figure Ahmet Okumus, paying £40,000 a month to live there.

The Mirror claim that the head of the Istanbul Real Estate Brokers Club revealed it is Abramovich who is renting that property.

Roman Abramovich is reportedly renting a mansion in the rich district of Anadolu Hisari

Abramovich has kept a low profile since he was pushed into selling Chelsea back in 2022

The house in which Abramovich is reported to be staying was purchased by Okumus a decade ago when it was then picked up for £20m.

There is a degree of ambiguity around Abramovich’s reported living situation in Istanbul, with one Turkish media outlet reported to have flown a drone close to the property back in December in a bid to catch a glimpse of him – but failing.  

It is also claimed that local residents in the neighbourhood have remained tight-lipped when quizzed by outsiders on Abramovich.

Russian money in Turkey is nothing new, however. 

A report from the Turkish Statistical Institute detailed how Russians made more than 16,300 property deals in 2022, up from 5,300 in 2021. 

Todd Boehly (right) led a consortium that purchased Chelsea from Abramovich last year

The Russian oligarch has been out of sporting consciousness since he sold Chelsea, the club he bought back in 2003.

He announced his plans to sell the Premier League club in March last year, a matter of days after Russia invaded Ukraine. 

Abramovich totally transformed Chelsea’s fortunes, investing more than £1.5billion to turn them into a domestic and European powerhouse.

Having been under pressure to sell amid sanctions placed on him, an American consortium – led by Todd Boehly – picked the London side up for £4.25bn in May last year.