London Real Estate, A Magnet For Mega-Rich From Around The Globe
Looking for a London pied-a-terre? How about a four-bedroom duplex overlooking Hyde Park? It could be yours, if you're prepared to spend $25 million.
In most of the United Kingdom, property prices are slumping. But in some of London's most upscale neighborhoods, they're going crazy.
Robin Perona sweeps the sidewalk at Egerton Crescent, a gracious semicircle of white townhouses in fashionable Chelsea.
In the 1990s, they cost about $700,000 each. Today the average price is some $13 million — or 8 million British pounds.
Perona shakes his head when told he's sweeping Britain's most expensive street.
Too Expensive For Britons
Across central London, mega-rich foreign buyers are pricing merely wealthy Britons out of the market.
In Bayswater, Joshua Ayres, of the property firm Hamptons International, is showing The Lancasters, 75 fully decorated luxury apartments. During a tour, Ayres shows the master bedroom, kitchen and living room of one apartment, saying all the units "have these grand double-height rooms."
The developers bought up five adjoining white stucco mansions, preserved their historic facades, then married the grandeur of 19th-century interiors with the latest technology and luxury.
"We have all underfloor heating, ceiling heating in these double-height rooms, as well," Ayres adds.
There's a spa (of course), 24-hour valet parking, and a staff of five is always on duty.
Enlarge image i