(Feb 1): Hongkong Land and Central Group are jointly acquiring the British embassy compound in downtown Bangkok for £420 million ($782 million) in what is said to be a record property deal for Thailand.

According to The Financial Times, Hongkong Land, part of the Jardine Matheson group, and Central Group, the Thai family-owned real estate and retail conglomerate, have agreed to buy the plot that sits on Wireless Road in Bangkok’s central business district.

Britain bought the site in 1921 in what was then a quiet suburb of Bangkok but is now a rare patch of greenery surrounded by skyscrapers and Central World, an upscale shopping mall.

The US ambassador’s low-rise residence sits on another piece of open parkland a few blocks away amid some of Thailand’s most valuable real estate.

The UK sold the front gardens of the ambassador’s residence a few years ago for £50 million to Central Group when it was developing Central World shopping mall.

British diplomats in Bangkok will move to a new embassy building in the AIA Sathorn Tower in another part of Bangkok’s central business district by next year.

This story, written by PC Lee for The Edge Singapore, first appeared on Feb 1.