Townhouses overtake penthouses as the capital’s hottest homes
These London gems are in such short supply that demand has remained strong despite the floundering property market
St James's Park property for £3.5 million
Slowly but surely, the charms of the London townhouse are coaxing the rich and famous out from behind the walls of their country estates and onto the terraced streets of Camden and Kennington. Madonna, Tracey Emin and Cherie Blair have all been seduced by the understated luxury of having your own slice of a London terrace, as townhouses overtake penthouses as the capital’s hottest properties.
A Grade-II listed former sweatshop in Spitalfields, lovingly restored as a six-bedroom townhouse, this month sold for £3.75 million, 25 per cent above its £3 million asking price. Taylor Thomson, the art collector, film-maker and daughter of Ken Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet, is rumoured to be the buyer.
However, these nuggets of London history are in short supply, and so demand has remained strong despite the floundering property market.
“A townhouse can quite simply just refer to a house in London or any town,” explained Jonathan Hewlett, head of the London division of Savills, “But it specifically can mean a prime terraced or row house in central London or brown-stone in New York. “People are converting townhouses back into how they were originally built. The ‘townhouse’ tag doesn’t necessarily add to the price, but converting it back into a house from flats can be attractive, add control of the basement and roof and give you your own front door.”
Townhouses that, 20 years ago, were being split into flats or converted into offices are now being restored as family homes. Developers, pension funds and individual owners are realising that, in terms of pounds-per-square-foot, the market favours living rather than working in many parts of the city.
“There just aren’t enough family houses in London,” said Jason Arden of niche developers, Eastbank Studios, who are currently selling three refurbished houses on a late Georgian terrace in the City of London. Previously interconnected and used as offices, the three properties have been modernised and are priced at £2.1 million.
“There is a steady supply of institutionally owned houses which have conversion potential,” Mr Arden added. Eastbank Studios are modernising 50 houses across London this year, of which ten were in commercial use.
London has history on its side. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, which destroyed 80 per cent of the city, the government passed the Building Act to create spacious but compact housing to maximise space in the capital. “It was to avoid the problem of big mansions at the end of small alleys, instead rather sensibly suggesting big house, big streets – small houses, small streets,” explains historian Dan Cruickshank.
The advent of the railways allowed Victorian London to expand into the suburbs, but throughout central London, many of these simpler, earlier houses remain.
In the swankier parts of London, such as Mayfair and Belgravia, many post-war 50-year leases are coming to an end and marvellous properties are coming back onto the market.
Five houses are coming back into residential use on Belgrave Square, and will fetch upwards of £3,000 per square foot through Knight Frank.
As an example of the changing market of the Noughties, a row of five houses on Queen Anne’s Gate in St.James’s Park were sold as offices for £2.9 million in 1998 before being split back into housing and sold for £985,000 each. After refurbishment in 2001, they sold for over £2 million each, and estate agents Hathaway’s have just exchanged contracts on another house on the same street for £3.5 million.
Barrie Warrender of Hathaway’s said: “People are drawn to the period feel of a house, and with a limited supply, demand will remain strong.”
Simple Georgian treasures
In Bloomsbury, agent Hurford Salvi Carr saw a spot of gazumping as two buyers competed to buy a £2.65 million Grade 2 listed 5000 sq ft house to modernise that had previously been in commercial use.
In Camberwell a late Georgian four/five bedroomed, tall, but narrow house is for sale at 850,000 through Wooster & Stock.
In Hackney, a rare unmodernised Georgian mid-terraced 1808 house with a 110-foot back garden just went under offer with agents Bunch and Duke above the asking price of £700,000. The previous owner had bought the whole terrace of 16 houses in the seventies and has slowly been selling them as the regulated tenants move on.
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article6966077.ece
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