Wytham Abbey, a 15th-century grade I-listed manor that was once planned as a hub for technologists and philosophers to solve some of the world’s toughest problems, has had its sale price slashed by 60% to £5.95m as its charity owners struggle to find a buyer.
The Effective Ventures Foundation (EVF), formerly the Centre for Effective Altruism, bought the 27-bedroom, 18-bathroom Oxfordshire estate in April 2022.
Backed by the Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s Open Philanthropy fund, EVF envisioned the property as a hub for global thinkers combining effective altruism and artificial intelligence to “benefit others as much as possible”.
But it was forced to put the manor and extensive grounds up for sale for £15m last year after its backers withdrew support for the events venue.
The property portal Rightmove said it was one of its five most-viewed homes of 2024 but with no sale agreed the asking price was reduced to £12m in June. It was cut again in August with the UK’s luxury property market struggling amid cooling interest from the world’s super rich and Labour’s tax changes.
EVF said: “As part of its ongoing effort to maximise sale proceeds directed to high-impact charities, Effective Ventures has taken advice from leading surveyors and decided to lower the property’s guide price to encourage offers from actively interested prospective buyers.”
Savills, the agency marketing the property, declined to comment.
Over its six centuries, the abbey has welcomed an eclectic list of guests, from Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell and Queen Victoria to Skype’s billionaire investor, Jaan Tallinn, and the jailed FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX was an EVF backer before its collapse.
Set in 23 acres of grounds and parkland and built around 1480 from locally quarried limestone, it retains Tudor arched doorways. The Earl of Abingdon lavished money on improvements in the 18th century, adding to its grandeur. It has eight reception rooms, a Georgian-oak staircase, stained glass panels and a marble fireplace.
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At the time of its decision to sell the property, an EV spokesperson said: “Effective Ventures agreed with the abbey’s major donors at the time of the original purchase that they could recommend that EV sells the property if they believed there were higher-impact uses of the asset.”
EVF’s parent group, Effective Ventures, repaid nearly $27m (£20m) last year to the FTX estate – equal to all the funds it received from entities linked to Bankman-Fried. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 for defrauding customers and investors of his crypto empire, which collapsed into bankruptcy from a valuation of $32bn.
