The number of homeowners with properties in Britain worth more than £1million has soared to 132,000, research reveals today. Over the last decade, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of ‘property millionaires’, according to the report by Santander.In 2000, the average home cost £85,000 and there were 26,776 people owning houses in the exclusive bracket.
Today’s report shows the vast majority of £1million-plus properties are in London.Of the 132,000, around 80 per cent are in the capital, typically in the south-west or west of the city in areas such as Kensington & Chelsea, Mayfair, Knightsbridge.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1292954/Property-millionaires-rocket-fold-decade-132-000-people.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0tYDsGUqN
Land Securities today announces that it has agreed to forward sell its proposed 310,000 sq ft retail, office and residential development at Park House, 453/497 Oxford Street, London, W1 to Barwa Real Estate Q.S.C (“Barwa”). Construction of the scheme started on site in May 2010, with completion of the development due in November 2012.
Barwa will pay £250m for the site, all of the construction costs and a profit share on completion. Of the £250m site price, £225m will be paid immediately and £25m will be paid on practical completion.
Land Securities will act as development manager responsible for delivery of the project with construction works paid for by Barwa.
A profit share will be paid by Barwa within 12 months of practical completion. Based on current expectations as to office and retail rental values this profit share is estimated to be c£33m and is capped at £50m.
London’s prime rental market has started with a bang in 2010 with the news that an apartment has come on the market for a staggering £25,000 a week.
Rents in areas like Mayfair, South Kensington and Knightsbridge rose 2.5% during the second half of last year, buoyed by the ultra-wealthy from the Middle East and Asia.
Prices are being pushed up as top rentals supply is down around a third compared to the norm.
After falling around 7% in the first six months of last year, super-prime rents have edged up by 2.5% on the back of lower supply and greater demand from top end corporates and individuals who came back into the London market after the turmoil at the beginning of the year righted itself.
A pair of two-bedroom penthouses in Park Lane, Mayfair, are being marketed at £25,000 per week, while a three bedroom Ancaster House in Chesterfield Gardens, Mayfair, was rented recently for the asking price of £45,000 per week by a royal family.
Great family estates are still shaping the way London lives.The Duke of Westminster, the richest of them all, has plans to bring new residents and a fresh glamour to Mayfair and Belgravia
£2.45 million: two-bedroom flat with two terraces in Eaton Square, the jewel in Grosvenor’s crown. Savills (020 7581 5234)
Three-hundred years ago London’s wealthiest land-owning families became developers – building on their huge estates and giving shape to the city we know today.
Many of these families still own large acreages of central London – now covered with valuable commercial and domestic property – showing a remarkable ability to survive turbulent economic cycles.
Many of Mayfair’s wealthy families fled London during the Blitz and never returned after the Second World War. So grand houses were converted into offices. Grosvenor had anticipated the rising demand for business space in the post-war period, and had begun to grant “temporary” (50-year) office leases. In the Nineties, as these leases expired and hedge fund managers and other entrepreneurs targeted Mayfair as a place to live as well as work, Grosvenor initiated a programme of residential reversions.
About 250 buildings have since reverted to residential use and the process is continuing. Several mansions have been reinstated as homes, while Grosvenor has collaborated with niche developers to create large lateral flats or transform modest mews houses into spectacular homes.
For more Mayfair Historye
A Mayfair triplex apartment — with cinema, car lift, secret courtyard garden and swimming pool — is to let at £40,000 a week.
This rent, which is more than 250 times what you would pay for a studio in Clapham, is seen as an emblem of the confidence in the London housing market, where the return of the City boy, with his bonus, is emerging as the theme of the autumn and winter.
The rent is cheaper than the bill for a suite, or suites, in one of the deluxe hotels that line nearby Park Lane. A star, plus entourage, would have room to rest and play in the apartment, as there are seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms and two kitchens.
For more on renting in London please see The Timesonline
The FT.com reported on London Luxury property market: The diversity of demand for luxury property has helped to underpin the capital’s market. For example, overseas buyers have regained some of their traditional share of the £5m-plus London market. Their portion peaked in the second quarter of 2008 at 68 per cent as the late superprime boom worked its way through. By the end of last year this proportion had dipped to less than 40 per cent. As international buyers gained confidence from the fact that prices were 25 per cent down on their peak, and weak sterling offered another discount, their share of the market grew to more than 50 per cent again by the summer.
The biggest change in the nationalities of those buying has been their spread, which keeps widening year on year. In 2009 significant demand has been seen from South Africa, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, India, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates and especially Italy, France and Greece. The Chinese are just beginning to make their presence felt – but Russians at 12 per cent of all foreign buyers are still a serious force.
One year on from the Lehman collapse there is a new danger creeping. Markets have bounced back from low levels but these rises have been based on very low stock volumes that have generated strong competition for good properties. We also have the benefit of very unusual ultra-low interest rates, which particularly aid equity-rich buyers. The recovery to date is explicable but if it continues at this rate it could pose problems in the future.
Despite this warning note, there has been a change to market psychology. It is a more sober, educated and moderate market that we inhabit this September compared with last year. Buyers are no longer banking on growth and neither are lenders. We will no doubt make the same mistakes in the future as we did in the last boom – but for now we are in a better place.
For the full Article
Many commentators believed that the near death experience of the financial system would be catastrophic for the high end of the property market as the hedge fund industry was ravaged by redemptions and leveraged private equity operators were stymied by a contraction of credit. But the script hasn’t worked that way. There are signs of life at the top end of the London property market as talk of bonuses is back on the agenda.
Last month estate agents reported a pick up in acquisitions of prime homes and weekend country retreats by hedge fund managers and the like. The £10m plus sector of the market saw values rise by 1.9% in June, while £1m plus properties rose 1.7% in June, to record the third successive monthly rise. Indeed in the second quarter central London £1m plus properties rose by 3.7%. Are the green shoots in the prime prestigious property market an encouraging omen for the rest of the property market?
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Foreign buyers are currently making the majority of all property purchases in prime London areas such as Chelsea, Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Hyde Park.
Despite the fact that prices have held firm in these traditionally upmarket areas, foreign buyers are prepared to pay a premium to secure the property they want as a result of considerable savings being made on the currency exchange.
Despite the downturn, London is still viewed by foreign buyers as one of the most desirable places in the world to own property, particularly those from Europe and the Middle East who are taking a long-term investment view.They want to buy in traditional prime locations which have limited stock and little new development, resulting in a strong level of demand.
Prices in such areas have fallen little over the last two years, due to the fact that the majority of these property owners have owned their properties for some time and many are unaffected by the employment market or mortgage availability and have not needed to sell.
They have been in a position to hold out until the market picks up, and with foreign interest now reaching new heights, prices are close to 2007 levels.
Michelle Obama and kids have paid a visit to the Audley pub in Mayfair where they apparently sampled a traditional British dish – fish and chips. The impressive Victorian pub in Mount Street is just a stone’s throw from the US Embassy which, for now, is in Grosvenor Square,
The Obamas have been in Europe for the 65th anniversary of D-Day, and whilst Obama returned to the US, Michelle stayed in Europe for sight seeing. Earlier in her trip, she was reported to have visited the Houses of Parliament.
The BBC reports that Michelle, Sasha and Malia spent over two hours at the pub with Michelle having a sirloin steak and the girls sampling fish and chips.
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