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Boom at the top

Sophie Brodie

Wednesday, 23rd April 2008

Sophie Brodie finds that the high end of the market is holding firm

Present-wrapping, flower-arranging, hair-dressing are, for most of us, incidental pastimes. For the mega-rich, they are room names. ‘When you think about it,’ gushes one estate agent, ‘the lady with the wrapping room really understood her own needs. After all, the rich do give a lot of presents.’

It’s fortunate they’re so generous. While average UK house prices sink ever deeper, weighed down by credit shortages and employment fears, values at the very top end remain remarkably high. Some have even risen.

Prices in Belgravia, Mayfair, Kensington, Hampstead and Holland Park are up a staggering 20 per cent on last year. In March alone, they grew 3.3 per cent, pushing the average price for a swish London home to £1.8 million. This was despite the collapse of the ‘banker bonus’ market (houses costing between £1 million and £7 million) in the wake of the credit crunch.

Agents cite a lack of supply as the main cause of this resilience. Finding a £10 to £20 million listed Georgian mansion complete with swimming pool, panic room, cinema and panoramic views is still trickier than snapping up a two-up, two-down semi under a flight path.

Supply is constrained by a number of new developments and the dearth of sellers. Throwing up another Buckingham Palace or Apsley House in central London is beyond imagining. Where a grand design is envisioned, progress is slow. First one must navigate the labyrinthine planning system, then demolish and build.

In Knightsbridge, traffic has squeezed through red and white bollards for months as the Candy brothers, the best-known proponents of super-rich living, assemble their fortressed hexagonal flats for the world’s wealthiest asylum seekers.

As well as presidential-style security, the Candys’ One Hyde Park brochure offers a 22-metre swimming pool, golf simulator, fitness room, wine cellar, 30-seat cinema and conference rooms — a snip at up to £130 million for the most lavish apartments.

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