Agency research reveals 'explosion' of high end flats across London

An impressive piece of research by London agency Kay & Co chronicles a huge surge in the volume and price of luxury apartments across central London. 

Kay & Co says the price of these apartments have risen 341 per cent in less than a a decade, from £511,000 in 2009 to £2.25m today. It also says there are some 4,000 apartments of this type across London - over a quarter of which are 'five star' units offering hotel-style luxury lifestyle services such as concierges. 

"From their original heartland in Knightsbridge these luxury buildings have expanded their presence across Central London. In the eight inner-most districts there are now 38 buildings providing some 4,000 hotel-style apartments" says the agency's latest report, with data analysis by market intelligence group Dataloft. 

The firm has used a one- to five-star rating for the apartments.

The four- and five-star developments were historically clustered in Knightsbridge, then expanded into Mayfair and Belgravia. However in recent years developers have delivered ultra-prime products in Fitzrovia, Westminster, Bayswater, Marylebone and the Hyde Park Estate.

Kay & Co says there are now 1,083 five-star rated apartments in London with a combined value of over £2.4 billion. The proportion of apartments achieving these top grades has risen steeply in the last 18 months from 60 per cent to 74 per cent of of all new PCL developments. More five-star apartments are due to be completed in in the next year or so than in the 10 previous years combined.                                                                                                                             

Some 81 per cent  of all five-star apartments scheduled for completion in the near future are in Fitrovia or Marylebone, and some of the most recent luxury projects unveiled or in the pipeline are in the Hyde Park Estate and Bayswater. 

Whilst, perhaps unsurprisingly, the report’s top two developments with the highest amenity scores are One Hyde Park and The Knightsbridge, other projects in the top-10 include The Chilterns and Chiltern Place, both in Marylebone; Riverwalk in Westminster; and Rathbone Square and Fitzroy Place, both in Fitzrovia.

The report also reveals that there has been a significant lack of new luxury apartment development in Chelsea and Kensington. 

Prices paid for new build apartments in central London has increased at an astonishing rate, the agency admits. 

"The average price of a hotel style apartment in PCL has risen 341 per cent from £511,000 in 2009 to £2.25 million in 2014-15. New apartments with hotel type amenities now sell at a 62 per cent price premium compared to second-hand conventional apartments" says the report.