A home close to London’s Regent’s Park is targeting wealthy foreign renters and touting itself as the area’s first purpose-made build-to-rent mansion, according to a representative for Rokstone, who is handling the listing.
50 Cumberland Terrace, which Rokstone estimates is worth £16.5 million (US$21.76 million), is asking a sizable £43,335 (US$57,160) per month or £520,000 (US$685,890) per year.
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The five-bedroom home spans 4,643-square-feet and is targeted at "super-wealthy Middle Eastern and Asian students and socialites wanting a ‘glam-yet-temp’ pad in the capital," according to a news release.
High stamp duty—a property tax paid when buying property or land over a certain price in England, Wales and Northern Ireland—means that wealthy families looking to live in London short term will typically rent, said the news release. To rent this home for three years would cost £1.56 million (US$2.05 million), a reported saving of £330,000 (US$435,113) when compared with paying the £1.893 million (US$2.495 million) stamp duty cost of purchasing the property.
Luxury rentals have boomed in central London this year and demand for super-prime rentals in the city has soared, according to a report from Knight Frank in July. In the first quarter of 2017, 30 tenancies were agreed to at £10,000 (US$12,889) or more per week, compared to only 20 such rentals in the same period the year before.
The house is also set to take advantage of Brexit uncertainties by catering to "nervous" EU residents choosing to rent rather than buy in the city.
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The renovation of the home, on the Grade I-listed Cumberland Terrace, took 12 months of planning followed by a two-year refurbishment. Now the house has a main reception room, a double-height atrium space, a kitchen and breakfast room with glass windows looking into the atrium, a full-floor master bedroom suite with a study, an elevator and a newly added basement.
The row of townhouses was built in 1826 by architect John Nash, well known for his work on The Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and Buckingham Palace. Former residents of the notable street are Freda Dudley Ward, the mistress of King Edward VIII, and Wallis Simpson, the American socialite whose intended marriage to the same king caused him to abdicate his throne.