TwentyFive in Marylebone – a new high-end scheme by Native Land, with one-beds from £1.45m – is also attracting under-the-radar buyers who prize luxury interiors but external understatement. This boutiquey collection of lateral flats and penthouses comes with a gym and concierge – but at street level, you would barely pay the simple brick building a second glance.
The pandemic has also made super-rich buyers reconsider their wish lists, with a private garden and their own front door preferable to a shared building with long hotel-style corridors and limited outdoor space. “There’s a certain type of buyer associated with developments such as One Hyde Park who like the attention that comes with a landmark address. But the majority of British and European buyers like being able to draw the curtains on their private townhouse. It brings the comfort of a certain level of anonymity,” says property consultant Alexander Millett. “Being self-contained and having private outside space has become a must have, and we’ve seen a renaissance in demand for the London townhouse since the start of the pandemic,” he adds.
Hannah Akyroyd, managing director at Akyroyd & Co, argues that buying a large house in a prime road such as The Phillimore Estate makes you more of a target. Ultra-prime developments, she says, offer greater security. “You can enter or exit your car more safely, which is usually when a person is more vulnerable,” Akyroyd comments.
But for many UHNWIs, nothing beats having your own entrance to the street, “whether it’s a gated mews or a ground floor duplex,” says Jonathan Inglis from Strutt & Parker’s Sloane Street office. He flags up this five-bed apartment in Knightsbridge’s Cadogan Square, priced at £24.5m. Its lavish interiors by Viktor Udzenija are masked by a non-descript black front door that merits its own photo in the sales particulars.
