London’s Regent’s Park Is Having a Moment
Prices are rising around London’s Regent’s Park as new buyers move in, drawn to tight security and great views.
Avenue Gardens in Regent’s Park, London. ALAMY
Regent’s Park, the 395-acre green space in Northwest London, is home to lions, tigers and other big game that reside at the park’s London Zoo. Now London’s property hunters increasingly have their sights set on the handful of streets surrounding the park.
British property developer Christian Candy, who already has a home on the park, has bought a row of seven houses on a street overlooking the park. He has planning permission to turn the row into a single, 45,000-square-foot family home, which local agents estimate could be worth £200 million when completed.
Property developer Christian Candy has bought a row of seven houses on a street overlooking the park. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGE
Artist Damien Hirst spent a reported £34 million on a 14-bedroom villa in the neighborhood. UPPA/ZUMA PRESS
Fashion designer Tom Ford is a resident of the neighborhood. GETTY IMAGES
This summer, artist Damien Hirst, who made his name pickling sharks and embellishing skulls with diamonds, spent a reported £34 million on a 14-bedroom villa in the neighborhood. Fashion designer Tom Ford is also a local resident.
Though it is about 4 miles northwest of London’s traditional prime real estate heartland, which includes the better known districts of Knightsbridge and Mayfair, Regent’s Park is a sought-after address, particularly for wealthy buyers from abroad.
The area’s high security, discreet atmosphere and palatial houses have made it popular with Russian buyers, while the presence of a major mosque on the park fringes has always made it a hot spot for Middle Eastern buyers.
“The park is closed overnight and so it is completely car-free apart from residents. It is very secure because most of the terraces have private security and the houses are all gorgeous,” says Stephen Lindsay, a director of Savills , who has been involved in some of the biggest real-estate deals in the area.
An aerial view of the park and surrounding streets. SKYSCAN/CORBIS
Part of the reason for the area’s exclusivity is its size. It is comprised of only a handful of streets, most notably the Outer Circle which as its name suggests rings the park, and a dozen or so offshoots.
Another factor is the sheer cost: up to $8,000 a square foot for a property in good condition.
According to research by Savills, average prices in Regent’s Park today stand at about $2 million—although whole houses routinely sell for north of $16 million. These prices have risen a relatively modest 5.5% in the last year as London’s top end of the market cools, and 37.5% since the prerecession peak of the market in 2007.
Most of the houses were commissioned by the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and designed by the architect Sir John Nash in the early 19th century. Nash’s classical terraces and villas clad in white plasterwork have become a hallmark of the Regency period.
There are some potential drawbacks to the area. Despite paying prices in the tens of millions, most buyers don’t actually own their homes outright. Properties in Regent’s Park are owned by the Crown Estate, one of central London’s richest landowners. Those who buy in the neighborhood are in fact only freeholders who have the right to use a property for a set period.
Homes sold with long leases (up to 150 years) are the most valuable, while those with short leases of less than 50 years are relative bargains, with a square foot value as low as $2,400, according to Mr. Lindsay, because of the cost and red tape surrounding extending that lease.
And the distance from central London means that residents need to travel to reach shops, restaurants and bars—although Marylebone High Street, which has a surfeit of all three, is a 10-minute walk away.
Then there is the flip side of all that Regency splendor: The historic houses of Regent’s Park are highly protected, and getting building permissions to alter the interior or exterior of the properties can be almost impossible.
New development within Regent’s Park is also largely prohibited. Developer PCW Property Holding plans to convert houses on Park Crescent West, at the southern fringes of the park, into 91 apartments, with nine new houses built in the gardens behind. The plans have met with a wave of protest from neighbors who say they fear disruption from the construction and complain the properties could be bought by overseas buyers likely to leave them largely vacant. Westminster Council is expected to give its verdict on the proposals later this year.
Sam Mitchell, the CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty in the U.K., believes that the area’s strict rules are part of its charm. For instance, to help preserve the uniformity of the Regent’s Park houses, exterior paintwork most all be in the same color scheme of off-white plasterwork and black front doors. “It does look very, very smart,” he said.