PROPERTY NEWS Winning areas and sales of the year, by Zoe Dare Hall

‘A RECORD YEAR’

Zoe Dare Hall reports on the winners and stand-out sales of the London market in 2021

For a year that started with a whimper – those long, dark days of the January and February lockdown – 2021 soon picked up apace in the prime London property market. “2021 rewrote the rules,” says Guy Meacock of Prime Purchase. “It performed in exactly the reverse of what we might have expected when Covid first hit in 2020. It is staggering, in the context of what’s been going on, how many agents are reporting a record year.”

The first half of the year saw a record level of transactions in Prime Central London, supporting year-on-year growth of 1.2 per cent, “the first time annual growth has surpassed 1 per cent since Q3 2014,” says Louis Harding, head of London at Strutt & Parker.

Since July 2020, sales in the £1m-plus market have been an average of 46 per cent above “normal levels”, says Frances Clacy, Savills’ associate director of residential research. Even without overseas buyers, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster saw the same amount of £1m-plus property transactions in the year leading up to May 2021 – that’s £4.46bn worth – than in the year to May 2019.

But where prime buyers are spending their money – and what they are buying – has changed.

THE HOTTEST AREAS

For buyers preferring a central London village to the rural version, it was all about Marylebone. The area bucked 2020’s ‘escape to the country’ trend, seeing £5m+ sales rise by 36 per cent last year, says Knight Frank, and hot launches this year include NativeLand’s TwentyFive. Nearby, Almacantar’s The Bryanston (where the penthouse is for sale at £66m) is attracting some of London’s biggest spenders.

There is a squeeze on local rental supply – LonRes reports the number of properties available to let in Marylebone is down by 85 per cent year on year and luxury rental development, The Marlo, is mopping up much of the demand in the area.

But for many wealthy families, the focus has been on space: making the move to outer prime areas such as Wimbledon, Richmond and Chiswick for huge houses and big gardens near parks. Wimbledon Village saw £213m worth of £1m-plus transactions in the year to May 2021, reports Clacy, and Clapham Common saw the greatest increase in spend (115 per cent) on £1m-plus properties compared to the year to May 2019.

It’s been a stellar year in Brook Green in West London too. Finlay Brewer – which reports the best year ever for transaction levels – handled eight of Brook Green’s ten £2m-plus sales this year. They’ve seen record prices, too, including £4.75m for a house on Dewhurst Road and £5.8m on Hammersmith Grove. “There has been a lack of stock, so for the first time in a few years we’ve seen bidding wars and gazumping come back into play, which

7%

INCREASE IN SALES PRICES IN ST KATHARINE DOCKS

46%

THE INCREASE ABOVE ‘NORMAL’ SALES LEVELS OF £1M+ HOMES

HIGH DEMAND Above: Lost House in King’s Cross with its ’true sense of escapism’ was sold by UK Sotheby’s International Realty. Bottom far left: This Connaught Square house was sold by Savills for £8.5m, a record for the square. Bottom near left: A St Katharine Docks flat sold for £2.5m through Cluttons

always pushes values up,” comments Paul Cosgrove, partner at Finlay Brewer.

Marsh & Parsons also highlights freehold houses in Brook Green – along with nearby Brackenbury Village and Hammersmith – as in “huge” demand. “The schools here are very popular and buyers want the community feel in an area that’s more affordable than Holland Park and Notting Hill,” comments area director David Hill.

And for Cluttons, 2021’s undisputed star is St Katharine Docks, where it has sold three properties in six months and rental properties – particularly penthouses – have gone within a few months from attracting no interest to seeing multiple bids within days of going on the market.

“Sales prices have increased by seven per cent over the year and we are now seeing the return of international interest as well as the traditional domestic market who are returning to City offices,” comments James Hyman, head of residential at Cluttons.

STAND-OUT SALES

So much is about turnkey luxury these days – but the penthouse at Southbank Tower shows demand for the exact opposite. “It was sold as shell and core,

so an opportunity for someone with vision to create their perfect home,” says Shereen Malik-Akhtar at UK Sotheby’s International Realty, of the 4,000 sq ft bare bones property that was snapped up by a British buyer for £11.3m in July.

Another one-off is architect Sir David Adjaye’s Lost House in King’s Cross, which sold for close to its £6.5m asking price. Tucked away in a former delivery yard, this Tardis-like house includes a 60-feet long reception room, sunken cinema, indoor pool and a water garden. “It offers a true sense of escapism as we emerge from 19 months of restrictions,” comments Guy Bradshaw, managing director at UK Sotheby’s International Realty.

For Ed Boden, head of Strutt & Parker’s South Kensington office, the landmark sale of the year was a five-bed, 6,000 sq ft triplex apartment with a swimming pool in a listed building at 47 Onslow Gardens, which sold for “within five per cent of its £12.5m asking price”. Boden adds that South Kensington has had a record year, with four of Strutt & Parker’s largest London transactions.

Finally north of Hyde Park, Connaught Village – an “under the radar place” says Savills – has notched up some record sales too, including a family house that sold for £8.5m, the highest ever price achieved on Connaught Square. L