Knightsbridge or Mayfair?: Property giants clash over best address in London

 
Competition: a £17.5 million house for sale in Upper Brook Street, Mayfair
23 January 2014

The two most prominent figures in the Mayfair and Knightsbridge property markets have clashed over which neighbourhood deserves the title of London’s most desirable address.

Developer Nick Candy, who managed the “super-prime” One Hyde Park apartment project in Knightsbridge, claimed Mayfair prices are set to slow and could even start to fall this year.

But veteran Mayfair estate agent Peter Wetherell dismissed the idea, saying: “Mayfair is not just keeping up with Knightsbridge values but is overtaking it, and is regaining the crown as the number-one location in London.”

Mr Wetherell — known as the Mayfair Guru — predicted that values for best properties in his area, far from falling, will double from about £5,000/sq ft to as much as £10,000/sq ft over the next 10 years, leapfrogging its rival.

But Mr Candy warned a glut of developments in the pipeline in Mayfair could lead to stalling prices. He and brother Christian led the transformation of Knightsbridge’s reputation, with One Hyde Park pushing top property values in the area to about £6,000/sq ft.

He added: “When you have oversupply prices will come down or at best stabilise. When we did One Hyde Park there was no other option for buyers from places like Russia and China. Now [in] Mayfair they have eight or 10. I don’t believe it will become more expensive than Knightsbridge or Belgravia. One Hyde Park’s achieved over £8,000/sq ft. Mayfair’s got nowhere near this.”

While Mayfair was historically known as London’s richest quarter, values have failed to keep pace with some other areas, partly because many of its homes were turned into offices in the post-war era. Mr Wetherell said a crop of planned schemes, with more than 400 homes and worth more than £5 billion, would help it back to the top. Some 75 per cent of the homes will be in former offices or government buildings.

Mr Wetherell said the revitalisation of Regent Street and reinvention of Mount Street as a high-end shopping district had boosted Mayfair, while its size — 4,360 residential addresses compared with Knightsbridge’s 2,500 — made it a more attractive “real” community.

But Mr Candy said few of the schemes were attached to hotels, unlike One Hyde Park, which is tied with the Mandarin Oriental.

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