property
global attention A record-breaking sale on Charles Street The sale of a first-floor lateral apartment at number 12 Charles Street has achieved a record-breaking price per sq ft. The three-bedroom property was extremely well received from a wide-ranging global audience. The property, meticulously re-designed and furbished by Rigby & Rigby, was sold by Knight Frank at a guide price of £15.9m. It reiterates findings in the agent’s latest research report that deal volumes in prime central London are rising. Knight Frank, 120a Mount Street, W1K, 020 3463 0320, knightfrank.com
Shooting stars The rise of the ‘super-let’ in prime central London
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eading estate agencies are reporting a trend for superprime rentals in London’s golden postcodes. “Taking a pragmatic approach has seen savvy developers and sensible vendors take a decision to offer their properties to the rental market for a two to three year rental rather than reduce the asking price and lay themselves open to accepting an even lower offer,” says independent buying adviser Simon Barnes. “The advantage is that over a limited term they can achieve exceptional rental revenue, while retaining their property asset and relaunching on the market at a later time when the prime central London super-prime market looks promising. It really is the common sense approach to wait until the market shows a positive change assuming no forced sale is involved.” Savills’s Super-Prime Lettings team, which deals with properties asking upwards of £4,000 per week in prime central London and North London, saw transactions triple in the first three months of 2017 compared with the same period a year earlier.
Increasing numbers of luxury rental properties have been brought to the market over the past 12 months, said the firm, mainly by developers and those looking to avoid selling in a testing sales market. This extra supply is being met squarely with heightened demand from high-net-worth individual tenants. Many who only need a base here for a few years are apparently deciding that renting can make more financial sense than buying, especially after weighing up the stamp duty land tax costs. Pent-up demand has been building steadily, but it seems the “full effects” are really being felt in 2017. New
Knight Frank has also been seeing this trend play out, tucking away four £20,000 per week plus deals in as many months, including a £27,500 per week townhouse on Mayfair’s Upper Grosvenor Street. Buying agency Black Brick, meanwhile, reports that nearly a third (30 per cent) of its searches in the first quarter were for rental properties, compared with just eight per cent in the same period last year.
Increasing numbers of luxury rental properties have been brought to the market over the past year applicant registrations in prime central London more than doubled in the first quarter, compared with the same period last year. Corporate tenants, families, entrepreneurs and well-off students have been driving much of this, and Savills expects the market to continue to flourish.
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