Not much ruffles the creamy white stucco in Belgravia and Mayfair, London’s two primest property postcodes. Yet all of a sudden, change is afoot. In a location where houses change hands for tens of millions of pounds, more property is currently available than anyone in the business can remember. Most of it, however, remains, in any conventional sense, unmarketed. It’s there, it’s for sale, but only if you know the right people. Welcome to London’s secret property market, where contacts, rather than cash, open doors.

According to Strutt & Parker’s Lulu Egerton, one of perhaps a dozen trusted agents working at the very top end of the Belgravia market, there are only four houses officially for sale in Chester Square, but she knows of another eight that are definitely available to the right buyer.

In Mayfair, there’s been something of a residential renaissance. Since 1990, the area has seen an influx of the stealthily wealthy, with offices being decommissioned and returned to their original domestic purpose. So while, as Mayfair specialist agent Peter Wetherell points out, Mayfair is ‘still the world’s most expensive office location, outstripping New York and Tokyo’, residential prices have also rocketed, with a Grosvenor Square flat sold 25 years ago for £200,000 now worth £4 million. Wetherell points out that Mayfair’s inhabitants are the immensely, discreetly affluent; tycoons like Tom Singh and Julian Richer. Yet it also oozes glamour; ‘When Victoria Beckham wants to shop,’ he says, ‘she comes to Mount Street, and when David Beckham wants to celebrate, he chooses The Connaught.’

Meanwhile, back in Belgravia and a few blocks to the north west of Chester Square, Lulu’s seen a career’s worth of Eaton Square property in a single year: ‘There are 109 properties in Eaton Square, only nine of which are still houses. You know, until recently, I’d only seen two for sale in my life, and at the moment there’s just one listed on lonres.com [a subscription-only property listings site, by the agents, for the agents]. But I could get you into another three… two of them are around the £23m mark, one is at £28m.’

I should point out that Lulu is using the word ‘you’ very loosely. It’s unlikely I’d make it through the security gates and beyond the first panic button. And even if I were a cash-buyer with £30m in the bank, it wouldn’t guarantee me access to one of these Eaton Square properties. Entry to this ‘secret property market’ is all about contacts, relationships and history.

‘Some of these properties get traded privately,’ Lulu explains. ‘If the vendor and buyer know each other, it really can happen around the dinner table.’ An estate agent may be brought in, but really just to hold hands and help finish the After Eights.

More usually, an acquisition agent turns up with a wish-list. Peter Mackie is MD of Property Vision, a leading acquisition agency, with (at time of going to press) the two biggest acquisitions of 2009 under its belt (‘neither of which I can talk to you about, of course,’ he tells me). He does, however, tell me that clients’ requirements tend to depend very much on where they’re from. British and European clients are often more flexible in terms of address, if other requirements (space, parking etc) are met. Buyers from the Far East, Eastern Europe and African countries are more address-focused, highly aware of the nuances of postcode cache.

At this stage, it’s unlikely the estate agent will even know the identity of the prospective buyer, but will take it on trust that they’re serious and discreet. The right estate agent will, however, have heard on the grapevine about all the properties that might just be available, should the right buyer materialise. And, interestingly, here’s a moment when traditionally competitive estate agents call a truce and phone each other, sharing tips, information and leads in a combined effort to accommodate a well-heeled potential buyer. The acquisition agent will get a preview of the property before the real buyer turns up for a viewing. Since trust is about relationships, a complex dating game might take place, with a prospective buyer finding himself on the end of a phone line to a clued-up specialist estate agent after some matchmaking by perhaps a colleague , an accountant, a broker, or a lawyer.

Lulu recently showed a property to a businessman from Jakarta. ‘Now he had approached an acquisition agent who’d done business with a friend of a friend. This agent was a sole trader – not one of the usual suspects – but I happened to know them through one of my own friends. That’s how it works. It can be very circuitous and easily involve six or seven people.’

Trust isn’t just key; it’s everything. Viewings are stressful and intrusive for anybody selling their home. The kind of vendor who keeps their property off an estate agent’s books is often privacy-conscious for a reason. Evidence that they might be leaving the country, even divorcing, could be financially sensitive information. The property will almost certainly contain valuable works of art and furniture… under these circumstances only a trusted, vouched-for buyer will ever find out that the property is even for sale, never mind get through the door. So who are these people? Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi are said to own a large mansion in the Square. Roman Abramovich, Roger Moore and George Soros have all enjoyed Eaton Square addresses. Of course, nobody’s prepared to talk about exactly who’s relocating. But there’s certainly a sense that movement both out and in is unusually lively.

An electorate hungry for revenge taxes for non-doms and bankers, plus a general sense that Britain might be broke, is perhaps helping persuade some to make Monaco or Switzerland their homes when once they might have chosen London. Also, with a high-profile group of serial squatters on the loose and targeting Belgravia (they’ve recently taken possession of David Blunkett’s old grace-and-favour home in South Eaton Place and a 34-room mansion in Eaton Square) local councils are recommending owners sell rather than leave these places empty while they’re abroad.

The squatters started in Mayfair, breaking into and cleaning up dusty, disused mansions and – in an unexpected alliance – inviting the Daily Mail around for herbal tea and a sing-a-long, finally winning over a recession-angry public by letting rooms to key workers.

With so many Belgravia and Mayfair mansions for sale, social change is afoot in London’s two most exclusive neighbourhoods. But just who is buying?

According to the agents it is, in part, a new wave of buyers from mineral-rich countries on the other side of the world. Replacing the oil tycoons of the 70s and the oligarchs of more recent times are buyers from the Middle and Far East, plus small nation states freed after the breakup of the Soviet Union. There are interested parties from African states, too. They’re all relishing the opportunity to own ‘destination addresses’ in a city where – unlike their own countries – you can’t just knock down and luxury-build. Buying a property in Belgravia or Mayfair feels more like buying an Old Master.

Education, too, says Peter, is a major driver: ‘A London education is as sought after as the property. Anyway, I’d say 50 per cent of our clients are British. Right up at the top end of the market as well. They’re very much still players. Bonus-driven markets like Notting Hill might be more affected by current politics, but generally there’s a sense that London always manages to reinvent itself.’

So what’s it like, I wonder, introducing two captains of industry and encouraging them to agree a price? When I sold my last London home, pre-banking crisis, my buyer was a Citigroup banker whom I wholeheartedly hope is now earning a meager bonus-free living. He crashed my daughter’s fifth birthday party in his eagerness for a discount. He was never much of a player. But bring two Blue Chip titans together – masters of the art of tough negotiation – and surely there’ll be proper fireworks? Apparently not. ‘I’ve just acquired a flat for a client at around a million and that took three months to exchange,’ says Lulu. ‘Whereas something I’ve just done at £13m took four days.’

She explains it’s partly about the help; that is, top lawyers who mostly already know each other and can work together quickly. But it’s also about priorities. With this kind of wealth, the buyers and sellers don’t feel they’ve much left to prove. And a substantial property purchase might be the last emotionally charged investment left. These could be the houses in which their children grow up. To a buyer, finding the right house in an area like Belgravia or Mayfair, where every property is entirely individual and even ‘the secret market’ is traditionally short of stock, is more important than the right price. For the vendor, a smooth, painless and discreet sale matters more than wringing the very last million out of the deal.

In the context of rapid changes in national economic status and the speed of international business in the silicon age, what a handful of estate agents like Lulu is doing seems almost anachronistic. Yet while mainstream agencies might be under threat from their online equivalent or even for-sale-by-owner websites, it’s hard to imagine the grand Victorian stonework of Eaton Square, or Mayfair’s 18th century architecture, ever changing hands in any other way.

Nicky Haslam is one of the world’s most distinguished and prolifically published interior designers renowned for his opulent, original and timeless interiors as seen in Architectural Digest, World of Interiors, Vogue, House and Garden, Elle Décor and Traditional Home.

In this exclusive interview he talks about his involvement in two unique penthouses which over look London`s famous Park Lane.
After a £15 million refurbishment a £2 million worth of interior design work and furniture has been spent on these two spectacular 5,000 square foot duplex penthouses on Park Lane being launched in the rental market at £25,000 a week.

These four bedroom properties boast 360 degree views over Hyde Park and the Capital, ambassadorial reception rooms, sweeping staircases with double height windows, sumptuous master suites with his and hers bath and dressing rooms, unequaled privacy and security plus the latest in AV technology.

Both Penthouses are available for rental through Wetherell at £25,000 per week for each apartment

To view the West Penthouse click here

To view the South Penthouse click here

WETHERELL

The Judges’ comments....
“Everything about Wetherell epitomises prestige. Started by Peter Wetherell 27 years ago and based in the heart of Mayfair, they specialise only in Mayfair properties and truly are the local experts with a clearly demonstrated passion and knowledge of their local area and an extremely visible presence in the local community.
But the prestige comes from more than just their location; independently owned and clearly very professionally managed, they have avoided falling into the trap of being a “good old fashioned local firm” and demonstrate a highly innovative use of all media including internet TV technology on their website and developing uses for Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Their marketing material is authoritative but relevant – they believe in giving something back to their potential buyers with informative and humorous communications.

In short, Wetherell is a slick, professional, approachable and definitely prestigious company without a hint of arrogance – a truly deserving gold winner for a firm clearly selling the very best of UK real estate.”

Note: The awards were set up in 2004 by Estate Agency Events to celebrate and endorse best practice in the industry and to date remain the only awards to be supported by the Ombudsman and the NAEA & ARLA with the judging process overseen in its entirety by The Property Ombudsman himself, Christopher Hamer.

The future is bright for sellers in prime locations. For everyone else, the outlook is more gloom

Househunters will be out in force shopping for a home this year, but those lucky few able to negotiate the many challenges bedevilling the market will be ruthless customers. In the property market of 2010, the prime homes in every location will outperform, but it will take a clever seller to secure a buyer for the rest.

What’s on the buyer wishlist?
Your home needs to be large and lovely, adorned with original features or immaculately finished with tasteful modern decor. It must be near good schools, shops and greenery, as well as having its own outdoor space. Such features are what financial experts like to call “the fundamentals” and, in that spirit of fiscal responsibility, the most in-demand homes must be within reach of work, by train, road or better yet, by bike. Welcome to the property market of 2010.

Only the best will do
Buyers are aware that they have probably missed the bottom of the market (few commentators predict falls on the scale seen over the past two years), but they still want insurance against further upset. According to Lulu Egerton, of the agent Strutt & Parker: “It is no longer about buying on the right street but about buying the best house on the right street.” And if that street happens to be in London, better yet. The capital is forecast to continue to outperform the rest of the UK again as the economy improves faster than that in other regions. Overseas buyers will fuel demand.

The election effect
Just another reason to dread the election. Not only will the protracted campaigning monopolise your papers, TV screens and conversation for months, but it may bring stagnation to the housing market. Agents and economists (still reeling from the surprises of 2009) are struggling to agree on where values will end the year, but almost all believe that the political uncertainty — a hung Parliament, anyone? — and the cutbacks and high taxes that must follow will freeze the property market from the middle of the year. With momentum expected to fall away, Michael Fiddes, of Strutt & Parker, says: “We will be advising those wishing to sell to put property on early.”

Prices go up, and then down?
Will the market’s good mood return once the installation of the next government is complete? Experts disagree. Hamptons International is tipping growth of up to 5 per cent, as homeowners prove eager to get on with their lives, while Chesterton Humberts thinks prices will close this year up 2 per cent. Robert Bartlett, chief executive of Chesterton Humberts, says: “For those living in areas of relatively stable employment, many now have considerably greater disposable income than just a year ago, and are now taking advantage of the historically low mortgage rates.”
But Lucian Cook, the director of research at Savills, enumerates the factors working against a big house price rally as “the prospect of public spending cuts, higher taxes, continuing mortgage rationing, further unemployment, possible stock market correction, inflation or future interest rate rises.” Such factors are among the reasons why Savills predicts headline-grabbing falls of 6.6 per cent this year and a slow recovery thereafter.

It’s all go in the country...
Hamptons International thinks the country house market will remain immune to such gloom, rising by as much as 10 per cent, bringing prices back to 2007 levels. Liam Bailey, the head of residential research at Knight Frank, thinks the prime country sector will hold steady, while the rest of the market falls by 3 per cent.

...and in the Teflon towns
Top-end agents elsewhere are also hoping for a good year. Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at RICS, says: “The areas that were the pressure points in 2009 — family homes near centres of employment — will continue to outperform.” Bailey tips über-towns such as Oxford, Cambridge and Tunbridge Wells to outperform, along with Cheshire and North Yorkshire. As Cook, of Savills, states, this year will be the one in which “you would rather be in Winchester than in Portsmouth, in Cambridge rather than Ipswich, or Harrogate rather than central Leeds”.

But nothing beats a London address
The continued shortage of property for sale, and demand from those whom Egerton, of Strutt and Parker, lists as active buyers — lawyers, barristers, doctors, dentists, private family trusts and entrepreneurs — will continue to bid up London prices. These gains will be fortified in the prime postcodes by a further influx of foreign buyers keen to take advantage of exchange rates.
Peter Wetherell, the Mayfair agent, says: “Any future weakening of the pound against the dollar or euro will see further interest from abroad as cash investors hedge against monetary inflation.”

Local buyers may struggle to keep up with buyers with access to foreign funds: while interest rates are forecast to stay low, there is yet to be a major loosening of purse strings among the lenders. But other London postcodes may still benefit from the improving economy and demand. King Sturge thinks the benefits will be concentrated in Zones 1 and 2. Lee Watts, of the agent Kinleigh Folkard Hayward, tips across-the-board price rises of 6-7 per cent.

A home for the holidays...
“Prime holiday resorts”— typically those in Devon and Cornwall — will outperform, according to Stuart Law, of Assetz, the property company. They will be shored up by the same affluent classes investing in fine family homes elsewhere.

“Many investors are realising that holiday homes in the UK can be just as attractive as those abroad,” he says. Jackson-Stops & Staff has already reported that its Truro office just completed its busiest and best quarter’s business in two years.

...but no holidays for some
These pockets of growth may not be enough to mask falls elsewhere, and in the new two-tier market, recovery will prove to be a long way off. The North-South divide, which closed in the latter stages of the house-price boom, is opening again.

Savills believes that it could take until 2016 for the North East to return to its 2007 peak, three years after the same feat is achieved across the South. Regional areas, with faltering retail centres and a reliance on public sector employment, are less likely to enjoy a ripple of City and overseas cash and will falter.

Nicholas Leeming, the commercial director of  Zoopla.co.uk, says: “Manufacturing areas are still struggling. The Midlands and further north will have a difficult time for another year.” King Sturge predicts postcodes reliant on first-time buyers to lag.

A surge of the wrong kind of supply
Professional investors will still find that their ambitions are curbed by the shortage of credit (they are predicted to benefit from stabilising rents in the second half of the year). They will be cursing lost opportunities, as David Sandeman, of the Essential Information Group, which tracks auctions, predicts a busy year for auctioneers as more forced sales end up in the auction room in 2010, some of them delayed from 2009. The auction room, he expects, will remain the preserve of the cash-rich.

Despite this gloomy prediction and the long wait for regional recovery, agents believe that recovery has set in. But, Catherine Penman, the head of research at Carter Jonas, warns of turbulence. “The market remains delicately poised and certain regions may dip slightly from month to month.” But it is predicted to be what Bartlett, of Chesterton Humberts, calls a “fractured but sustainable recovery”.

This article was published by The Times on 8th January 2010. Please click here to view

The newest penthouses in Mayfair sit on the eighth floor of Avenfield House above Park Lane, with views in one direction over Hyde Park; in the other, over the area’s distinctive redbrick houses towards the London Eye and the City.

The two apartments — both four-bedroom duplexes — cover about 10,000 sq ft, enormous for this part of London. With interiors designed by Nicky Haslam, Morpheus, the developer, believes that they could be the capital’s flashest penthouses.

“Each apartment is the size of a townhouse,” says the company’s Andrew Murray. “I would say they are the most impressive penthouses in London, if not the world.”

Soon to be rented at £25,000 a week, their launch is emblematic of the spectacular recovery of the super- prime market. On its knees in the dark days of early this year, the market for the finest homes is again awash with foreign and City money. Deals to rival boom-time records are again being done for the best properties.

The two penthouses — which have an exclusive Park Lane address but none of the noise — have been ten years in the making. The internal renovations (at a cost of £500 per sq ft) have been dramatic: the living/dining room is a huge lateral space that spans the width of the building.

Haslam’s interiors are an eccentric mix of the sleek and the quirky. The main suites have his-and-hers Italian marble bathrooms, while the banisters for the stairs leading to the first floor are made of cut crystal. “It all has a slightly Hollywood style,” he says. “The ceilings are so high that you can use enormous furniture. It is astonishing — you feel on top of the world.”

The owner thought about living in one of the penthouses, but decided instead to let both from January.

Luxury like this doesn’t come cheap, of course. But £25,000 a week? Peter Wetherell, of Wetherell, the agent managing the properties, rented a Mayfair property near by for £36,000 a week several years ago. The tenant stayed for almost a year. Meanwhile, WA Ellis marketed a property recently on Brick Street, with car lift and cinema, at £40,000 a week (the asking price has since been reduced to £30,000). It says that an international celebrity will be the probable tenant.

Wetherell says that whoever rents one of the Park Lane penthouses will be the type to take the presidential suite in a five-star hotel. “Someone who wants a toe in the water in London and who wants the international address of Park Lane. You’ve got the bling, and the view.”

This article was published by The Times on 11th December 2009. Please click here to view

It would be wrong to expect a continuation of the current rapid recovery in the housing market, as the economy is not in a position to permit this in the short term. Similarly, it would be wrong to expect carnage.
Liam Bailey, Knight Frank

This year’s rise in house prices, driven by an acute shortage of property, does not look sustainable. We still think that prices will fall by between 35 per cent and 40 per cent from their peak. While it is difficult to judge when prices will turn lower, we have pencilled in falls of 10 per cent in 2010.

Ed Stansfield, Capital Economics

The stock of property for sale remains extremely limited, forcing prices upwards. I expect to see this change rapidly in the new year as people are encouraged to come to market by rising prices, which could in turn bring about a second dip in property values.
James Hyman, Cluttons

The volatility in the stock market throughout 2009 has helped to fuel the feeling of financial insecurity and many have turned to the old favourite bricks and mortar. Property still holds a magnetic appeal in the medium term to savers and investors alike. We will see not only an improvement in the market itself but an increase in the number of deals.
Gary Hersham, Beauchamp Estates

Interest rates will not change in the first half of the year. However, when they do start to rise again, maybe in the middle part of 2010, it could prevent anyone looking to upsize from being able to move.
Caroline Kavanagh, Townends & Regents estate agents

Certain properties will continue to defy market conditions and sell well, in many cases at 2007 levels. Growth next year will be strongest in prime Central London and ripple out most quickly to the South East and prime centres, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Winchester, Bath and Harrogate.
Catherine Penman, Carter Jonas

People are increasingly concerned by the lack of housebuilding, as they become more aware of the future implications of the supply crisis for them and their families. That 43 per cent of people in a survey said they would not object to new homes being built in their local area is quite remarkable, given traditional Nimby attitudes.
David Bexon, smartnewhomes.com

Central and southwest London are already experiencing better-thanaverage house-price growth and are expected to continue leading the way in the house-price recovery into 2010. These family movers will also push up house prices in the suburbs of all of the major UK cities.

Scotland and the South East look well placed to strengthen. There will, however, be significant challenges in areas with large numbers of manual labourers, below-average wages and a higher incidence of credit-challenged borrowers. These locations, scattered through the whole of the UK, may even experience falls next year.
Stuart Law, Assetz

Any weakening of the pound against the dollar or euro will see further interest from abroad. However, supply of property will remain relatively low thanks to low interest rates and unemployment not affecting prime property owners. We are unlikely to see the bargain prices of 2009 again.
Peter Wetherell, Wetherell, Mayfair, Central London

With low levels of stock and growing confidence and demand people will have to broaden their search if they want to find value. Areas such as East Sussex and Kent, which have been lagging in the recovery, will benefit from this effect and there will be a direct impact on prices.
Philip Harvey, Property Vision, South East

Smaller niche sites of well-designed family housing will see moderate growth in 2010, fuelled by lack of supply. Opportunities for first-time buyers will continue to be an issue as lenders stay cautious and deposit demands remain high; this may have a longer term effect on the overall housing market recovery.
James Gibson, Sovereign housing association

The Government will want to do its utmost to get some feel-good factor into the public psyche before the general election. There will be further pressure exerted on the banks to increase the residential lending necessary to stimulate the housing market.
Roger Russ, Tyser Greenwood Surveyors

The gulf between good properties and the very best has now widened. If people have taken a bath on their stocks and shares, perhaps they have made a promise to themselves to be more careful with their investments.
Lulu Egerton, Strutt & Parker

The recent pick-up in house prices is based on fragile economic fundamentals such as a weak pound, which has driven overseas buyer demand, and a boost from the stock market recovery, both of which are unlikely to be as supportive during 2010. It is very probable that the present recovery will stall next year.
James Thomas, Jones Lang LaSalle

This article was published by The Times on 11th December 2009. Please click here to view

THERE’S living in London, and then there’s living in a London area with a truly sought-after postcode. It’s not just about status – it really is smarter, and nicer.

Of course the problem with London’s poshest parts is that they cost the earth, plus a bit more. But for those considering splashing some bonus-fuelled cash on a London pied-a-terre, there’s a great way of snagging properties in such parts on the cheap. Large swathes of areas like Mayfair, Chelsea and Knightsbridge are owned by ancient aristocratic estates, with properties sold on a leasehold basis. Normally, leasehold properties are sold with a 99-year lease, which can be extended as necessary. But on occasions where the estates want to keep more immediate control of the property, they’ll put units on the market with much shorter leases, and at a lower cost.

“Buying a short lease property enables you to live in a highly sought-after area at a discount,” says Robert Windsor of Mayfair estate agent, Wetherell. For example, an average two-bedroom apartment in Mayfair with a long lease (99 years) would cost you around £1.25m. But the same property with a 20-year lease could cost you as little as £375,000. Short lease properties aren’t necessarily great investment opportunities, especially if the lease can’t be extended. They’re traditionally favoured by people like retirees and parents setting up student-age children, and they’re also an option for  those with spare cash who are looking for a status buy. But they also have potential as a viable alternative to long-term renting, says Windsor. “You are effectively buying the right to reside in the area for 20 years by paying upfront – that equates to £390 per week for a £375,000 Mayfair flat, whereas a similar property would normally rent for between £900 and £1,000 per week.”

This article was published by City AM on 27th November 2009. Please click here to view

Simon Halabi, the billionaire owner of a £500 million trophy collection of London office blocks that was handed to administrators last month, is selling a property in Mayfair for £30.5 million.
Mr Halabi has put the four-storey, Grade II-listed 21 Charles Street on the market with two estate agents. The run-down Georgian terrace is in urgent need of repair and has been left empty for years, according to Westminster Council.
The sale comes weeks after the six properties in Mr Halabi’s commercial property portfolio went into administration and shortly after reports emerged that the tycoon was in talks to buy them back.
The office buildings are now under the joint control of Ernst & Young, the accountacy firm, and CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), the property consultancy. Mr Halabi is understood to have met CBRE this month, although he has not yet tabled a formal offer.
Mr Halabi could have come under pressure to sell amid concerns within Westminster Council that the near-derelict property could be occupied by squatters. Councils have the power to issue compulsory purchase orders on empty properties that have fallen into disrepair.
Savills, which with Wetherell has been appointed to market the Mayfair property by Charles Street Holdings, the registered owner, said that the mansion required “complete modernisation”. Although it is boarded up, the house, which covers 12,300 sq ft and comes with the neighbouring mews house, is described by Savills as having the potential to become “one of Mayfair’s finest residences”.
Once restored, the house would have ten bedrooms, ten bathrooms and ten reception rooms. The master bedroom suite would fill the entire second floor.
The enormous price tag of the property reveals the grandeur of the location: the house next door was once the home of the Duke of Clarence, who later became William IV, and a few doors down is the Burmese Embassy.
Jonathan Hewlett, an agent at Savills, said: “This is a very special house with masses of potential. It has planning permission for something much bigger. A similar unmodernised property in Eaton Square recently sold for £33 million. I am very confident we can sell it for the asking price.”
Recent sales on the street appear to back this up. Five months ago one of the red-brick mansions on the street, No 14 Charles Street, was repossessed. Eventually it was sold for £20 million, which is a record for a repossession. Indeed, Charles Street is a hot spot for empty properties; there are several homes that appear vacant on the street.
The High Court appointed Ernst & Young last month as administrator for six properties owned by Halabi, after his whole portfolio fell in value to £929 million in June, lower than the £1.15 billion loan secured against it.
The office blocks that went into administration, together worth an estimated £500 million, are: Aviva Tower, in the City of London; 60 Victoria Embankment; Millennium Bridge House; New Court; Ludgate House; and Leadenhall Court, also in the City.
CBRE refused to comment on reports that Mr Halabi had made an offer. The consultancy favours selling off the assets on a piecemeal basis, according to a strategy note published on Friday. CBRE said that the value of the portfolio had risen by about 5 per cent since its June valuation.
Mr Halabi was not immediately available for comment.

This article was published by The Times on 18th November 2009. Please click here to view

In the early Eighties I briefly lived in Mayfair. I sublet a flat behind the Park Lane Hilton from the wayward son of a Greek shipper. "There is everything you need here,'' said the swarthy heir to a fleet of threadbare flags of convenience (no Onassis, he) and I expected him to show me how the utilities worked and the whereabouts of the cleaning kit. Instead, he leant out of his first floor window and pointed at a muddy green door. "There, for £25, you can get six of the best,'' he claimed. He gesticulated towards the adjoining apartment block, "on the fourth floor is a beautiful Indian girl and on the floor below a German dominatrix.'' And, at the seedy convenience store opposite, the area's most desirable benefit was, he said, "the best Kalamata olives outside the Peloponnese''.

I did not avail myself of any of these services (I have never been particularly partial to black olives), however during my time in the quadrilateral mile bordered by Park Lane, Piccadilly, Regent Street and Oxford Street I did gatecrash the Berkeley Square Ball (a charity dance frequented by Princess Michael of Kent, Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger), ride the dodgems at the Belgrave Beano (an annual fair in Belgrave Square), smooch a "Mayfair Merc'' (a Sloane Ranger wrapped in bling) and left myself stony-broke after buying a round of drinks at Annabel's nightclub - named after Lady Annabel Goldsmith. My local was the Beachcomber in the May Fair Hotel (around the corner from Langan's Brasserie), my greengrocer was a slipped fiver to the kitchen porter at the Hilton and the nearest takeaway was the Hard Rock Café which, for a price, would deliver a cheeseburger and fries in a black cab.

Mayfair has always been a bachelor's Avalon, an "isle of the blessed'' for the single man with easy access to a wet shave, bespoke shirt and decent wine merchant. Even after the Second World War, when it was a ghostly place because many of its mansions had been requisitioned by the War Office and turned into offices, it remained a den of night-time jollity for the single.

Since the Nineties the temporary consent for offices has been expiring and the buildings have begun to revert to residential. Now the area is being colonised by the multicultural moneyed but, if he or she can afford it, it still remains the idyllic spot for a set of Sybaritic quarters for the unmarried.

And number 9 New Burlington Place is the perfect pied-à-terre. It is a two-storey, one-bedroom house hidden away in an underused passageway running between Regent Street and Savile Row. Its owner, 46-year-old Hugh Le Fanu, describes it as "Stuart Little's House'' (Hollywood's animated mouse that lived in a New York brownstone wedged between two huge buildings). It might better be described as a splendiferous lean-to, skilfully tacked onto the back of an office redevelopment. It was built as a sop to the planners in the early Nineties and is, according to Shaun Crockett, of Wetherell, the smallest house in Mayfair. "I know of no other place like it in the area – it is private and quiet and has no residential neighbours, he says.''

On the other hand it does have, all within 100 metres of its solid front door, the Polo Bar in the Westbury Hotel, a proper barbers, the gentleman's club Buck's, an Italian bistro (calves liver and fried zucchini £18.50), a flutter of Voguettes (the young girls who work at Vogue magazine) and Hamleys toy shop (extremely handy for finding presents for godchildren).

Inside is a gentleman's chambers; it has a decent kitchenette, a double bedroom housing a "bachelor's occasional'' bed and a proper bathroom. And it would not be unreasonable to call the main downstairs room with its bay window a drawing room (although, of course, there is nowhere to withdraw from). It currently contains a couple of sofas, an eclectic collection of paintings, a large bookcase, occasional table and a corner in which to chuck a cashmere overcoat.

In fact I thought it was rather roomy. But then my Mayfair bolt-hole was so tiny that when my friend Julian Watson tried to contact me he would put down the phone after one ring. The flat was so small, he claimed, that the pre-hands-free telephone was never more than a single arm's length away.

This article was published by The Telegraph on 31st October 2009. Please click here to view

Bonus season has dawned again. Reports from agents in London’s best postcodes reveal that just as prices have edged back up to the highs of 2007 and sealed bids have again become commonplace, so too the annual contest for the best homes for finance kings has been revived.

Agents feared that the ritual, which boosted the tempo and prices in many a winter market, had become a relic of the boom time. But the Centre for Economics and Business Research predicts that bonuses will total £6 billion this year, up 50 per cent on last year (but still substantially down on the £10.2 million paid out for 2007). Much of this will be doled out in shares or other non-cash forms — but agents say that City-based buyers are lining up to view homes ahead of a new-year payout. They may be financial sophisticates but few can ignore the security and inflation hedge offered by property, especially in a fast-recovering London market.

Ed Mead of Douglas & Gordon, said that interest would be concentrated in the price range of £1 million to £2.5 million, down from the more typical bonus-fuelled price range of £3 million to £5 million, but he said that the bonus effect would be accentuated this year because the market is so thin and transactions so low. “There is no more stock coming on to the market to satisfy these buyers, so it might even lead to an uplift in prices.”

Peter Rollings, of Marsh & Parsons, said that the uplift was being felt in every price range. “City buyers are now feeling secure in themselves. We are going to see a flurry of fairly big deals happening in Kensington and Chelsea, but the activity is at all levels down to the junior banker who has a bonus of £200,000 and wants to upgrade from a one-bed in Clapham to two beds in Fulham.”

Savills, the agent, confirms that the chief beneficiaries will be those family areas in southwest London which, as previously reported in Bricks and Mortar, have led the recovery this year and — as Jonathan Hewlett of Savills, said — make up the “mid-prime areas that have traditionally attracted mid-management-level City workers and the young banking families”. He also expects cash to flow through to Islington, Hampstead and even Canary Wharf, which the agent Hurfurd Salvi Carr recently reported had belatedly begun to catch up with the recovery as City confidence grew.

Some observers have warned that the recession has changed bonus buyer habits. David Adams, of Chesterton Humberts, said that more bonus money will this year be spent paying off debt “rather than mortgaging to the hilt for a trophy property”. He predicts a greater proportion of bonus-funded buyers in areas such as “Parsons Green, Fulham, which offer 23 to 35 per cent more space than Kensington flats for equivalent prices. Prices for these homes have already recovered to peak 2007 levels.”

But one property likely to lure the City buyer with the best bonus in the bank is 48 Upper Grosvenor Street, where from the bath it is possible to see — just over the window ledge — the Art Deco façade of the American Embassy, guards positioned around Eero Saarinen’s concrete building. As its view suggests, this property is situated in the heart of Mayfair: two blocks from Oxford Street and minutes from Hyde Park.

The house, which is on the market for £17.5 million, is renowned as much for the sexual escapades of one of its former occupants as it is for its location. Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll, popularly known as “the Dirty Duchess” for her role in one of England’s most infamous divorce cases, lived here, entertaining visitors such as Noël Coward, Cary Grant and Anthony Eden. It was in the bathroom that the Duchess was photographed in a mirror, naked apart from her pearls, in a compromising position with an unidentified man. Her husband used the photograph in evidence when he filed, succesfully, for divorce in 1963. The Duchess moved out of Grosvenor Street and the house passed to various owners, before falling into disrepair.

Property manager Simon Rusk, the owner, bought the house for £2.5 million three years ago, but after spending as much time renovating it, he has decided to move to the country.

The 1727 house, built over six floors, has a gym and cinema but only four bedrooms. Rusk has fitted the house with the latest technology, including temperature and security control measures that can be operated via mobile phone. Even City titans will find there are plenty of rival buyers. Jayne Weldon of Wetherell, the agent, said: “There are people who have the money to buy whatever they want. And they all want to live in Mayfair.”

This article was published by The Times on 23rd October 2009.  Please click here to view