Newsletter June 2011

Seven competing bids submitted to us for a 38 year lease in Onslow Square demonstrated the vigour of the current market and revealed a tactic which both ignores traditional advice and is, with the benefit of hindsight, brilliantly obvious.

Seeking offers in excess of £1.3 million for a two bedroom flat in such a prime South Kensington location, this Onslow Square property was always going to attract a lot of attention. Of course, the length of the lease and the cost of an extension – probably around half a million – quickly deters many of those for whom the guide price is more or less at…

The lettings market is exceptionally active at the moment, with growing rents and a great appetite to trade up encouraging landlords to invest in renovation and improved specification.

Just six months ago, it seemed nobody wanted to move. Tenancy renewal rates were at record levels and the underlying mood of caution was such that, by default, change was avoided wherever possible. Gosh, how things have changed. Confidence and optimism now abound where once wariness was king. All of a sudden, everyone is on the move, from existing tenants and new entrants from overseas, to plenty of Brits…

This month we are delighted to commence marketing a fabulous and highly remarkable house on the Chelsea / Knightsbridge borders: 83 Elystan St SW3.

It is the first, of a series of post-Lehman projects on which we have been advising, to come to the market. It is also, at over 5,250 sq ft, the largest single dwelling of them all.

Having worked on the design and specification of the house with developers HAB Group and architects McCusker Storey McKintosh from an early stage, we are, I confess, massively enthusiastic about this property. For UK and international buyers alike, it ticks all…

If you think selling in London can be stressful, spare a thought for those across the pond.

A delightful couple for whom we have recently found a London house have been telling us about their Greenwich Village apartment in New York, which is for sale at the moment.

To start with, getting renovation works done involves so many permits and regulations that buyers have a strong incentive to avoid anything that isn't ready, now, and to their taste. So you need a buyer who likes what you like.

You then need a buyer whom your neighbours will like - because the building's management committee will have…

Beaney Pearce has bought and donated three sets of the most recent encyclopaedias – thirteen volumes of My First Britannica, sixteen volumes of The Britannica Student Encyclopaedia and twenty-two volumes of The World Book Encyclopaedia – to The Resource Centre at St. Joseph’s RC Primary School in Chelsea. These were presented to the School by Linda Beaney at a special assembly.

With the aid of a Government grant, St. Joseph’s refurbished its Resource Centre around a year ago. It has fifteen computers for the children and one for the teacher, but its bookshelves had been largely…

Our promotion this year to celebrate Chelsea Flower Show week proved exceptionaly popular. Despite a huge door-to-door maildrop of packs of free cornflower seeds, so many extra packs were requested that we were left scrabbling around for more.

"We like to run promotions that are fun and relevant to the area", said Gemma Corr, Associate Director in charge of our Lettings and Management departments, "our only slight concern now is that, if all the seeds given out have been planted, come July the Borough will be over-run with over four million blue cornflowers!" 

We have just a few packs left…