CTV News | London’s real estate market bounces back

CTV News | London’s real estate market bounces back

The sixth Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, might have the sweetest real estate deal on the planet.

Through Grosvenor Ltd., the family real estate company, he has perpetual and exclusive ownership of most of Mayfair and Belgravia, the ultra-posh London neighbourhoods where a BMW is considered a lowly grocery getter. Buying a house or apartment in either place is exceedingly difficult. That’s because the properties, which came into the family in 1677 and cover about 300 acres, are almost always occupied on leases that can range from a few years to a century. When the lease is up, the duke (or his heirs) takes back the keys.

And thanks to the extraordinary rebound of the London property market in the past year or so, the property values and lease prices attached to them are rising, pumping up Grosvenor’s profits. John D. Wood & Co., a London property agent and manager, tracks values and found that large houses (more than 3,500 square feet) in the prime parts of central London fell about 40 per cent between 2008 and mid-2009. Since then, they have recouped almost all their losses, marking one of the sharpest and quickest comebacks in recent decades.

By North American, even Manhattan, standards, the cost of accommodation in West London is outrageous. Example: The asking price on one three-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot apartment on Belgravia’s Eaton Square is £7-million ($11-million). For that, you get 16 years. The lease price works out to $58,000 a month.