Thoughts, news and insights | London Property Consultants

Why the master bedroom is a priority for buyers of prime property

Priorities of life take their shape in this room – the master bedroom. This is where you wake to a new day. This is where you return and reflect on how each day went… and you spend hours in this room sleeping and preparing for the next day. It’s an important space and needs priority attention. The master bedroom is a reflection of you. It should speak to you and create a sanctuary, which is your own intimate private retreat.

Duke’s Mews, on the market with Arlington Residential

Increasingly, the hurried pressure of the outside world and the demands of hectic lifestyles have made homeowners want to retreat from this busy world and feel a sense of peace, well being and calm within their homes; this has elevated the importance of the master suite, drawing inspiration from the luxury hotel interiors domestic design.

Walk-in wardrobes

After the kitchen and main reception area, the walk-in wardrobe will add most value. Prospective buyers will usually have made their decision after seeing the kitchen and reception room. If you can get them to the second floor, then assuming the master bedroom has a spacious, well planned walk-in wardrobe, complete with separate his and hers space, then more often than not, you will seal the deal!

Master bedrooms and suites, just behind kitchen and family living areas, are the most important areas in our projects today. Gone are the days when these luxury suites are just a larger than average bedroom with an en-suite. Today’s master suites encompass a large sleeping area, a sitting area, sometimes a connected study room, his and hers walk-in wardrobes with separate dressing rooms, freestanding bespoke designed cabinets and storage for belts, watches, shoes and handbags, and either one or two en-suites.

by Simon Barnes

Bayswater – no longer on the wrong side of the postcode

Just a few years ago buyers rejected Bayswater on the grounds of it being on the ‘wrong side of the road’. Back in the day, simply because Bayswater was technically in London W2, many buyers were put off because of it having the wrong postcode.

Victorian building in Bayswater, London – AdobeStock

Postcode Snobbery

I recall a great architect designed house on Hereford Road in W2 which was cool, modern and occupying a great plot. It was a fantastic buying opportunity, but buyers wouldn’t even consider viewing it because it was in W2. Eventually, the house was bought by a developer and has since sold for serious money. At the time the architect designed another house in Notting Hill, a stone’s throw away in W11 which attracted serious interest, illustrating that the postcode was the key driver.

Fast forward 15 years and Hereford Road is one of the most sought-after roads in W2.

Slowly over the past 10 to 15 years, this postcode snobbery has fallen away. Buyers have realised that they can get good houses and better value for money if they stop focusing on postcodes and look at what the actual property offers,

where it lies in which street,
what the locality has to offer,
local amenities, green spaces and transport links.

Having spent most of the 20th century drifting into decline, known as ‘bedsit land’ and without a clear identity, the 21st century has witnessed Bayswater gradually getting noticed by wealthy overseas investors and buyers from the USA, The Middle East and Brazil as well as government investment, all of which has helped to lead the cosmopolitan revival across W2.

Property in Bayswater

Today most of the housing stock in Bayswater consists of impressive white stucco four or five storeys buildings. Many are now divided into luxury apartments offering excellent lateral space and generous proportions. Some enjoy a lovely green aspect looking across garden squares. Bayswater is now home to contemporary high-spec apartment blocks. Tucked away one can also find some attractive mews properties and five/six bedroom family houses in and around Connaught Square – home to Tony and Cherie Blair.

Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, London, United Kingdom — Queen’s Gardens, Bayswater, London – AdobeStock

Architecturally Bayswater still boasts some lovely white stucco crescents and terraces and a few rather fine beautiful Georgian garden squares. The lesser known Cleveland Square, Craven Hill Gardens, is home to architect Kenneth Frampton’s residential block the Corringham, formerly the home of the Hempel Hotel. Leinster Square was the chosen site for luxury developers Alchemi, who in collaboration with architects and designers, took on the project of converting a stucco fronted Grade II Listed Victorian terrace which included a dilapidated hostel and converted them into six luxurious lateral apartments and five wonderful townhouses. The project completed in June 2016; the developers worked with local residents and the garden committee to rejuvenate and revitalise Leinster garden square, with residents of numbers 7 to 12 benefiting from private access and membership.

Pockets of Bayswater continue to be sold off to developers, including commercial spaces and hotel buildings. Both Whiteleys shopping centre and Queensway have been acquired by an international investor planning to create a ‘destination village’ offering shopping and eating and give this area of W2 a welcome facelift. Crossrail’s Elizabeth Line is scheduled to open later this year at Paddington Station, reducing journey times to Canary Wharf to 17 minutes trip and just 10 minutes to Liverpool Street Station.

Eating Out in Bayswater

Bayswater today is an eclectic mix of traditional and contemporary, with a more edgy vibe than its more reserved neighbouring postcodes. However, like Notting Hill it manages to be both cool and cosmopolitan. Eating and shopping choices reflect this with a North African restaurant, Morrocan Sahara in Hereford Road and Hafez offering delicious Persian cuisine. Richard Branson enjoys going Greek at Halepi and locals flock to the Aphrodite Taverna for traditional Cypriot food.

There are many upmarket pubs to choose from including the The Leinster Arms, The Swan over the road from Hyde Park and for cocktails visit Old Mary’s at The Mitre Townhouse.

Buying Advice

London has pretty much exhausted new prime postcodes it makes sense to listen to the likes of us; those who have seen it all before. My advice is to cast your eye to the wider prime locations. This is why Bayswater still offers investment potential and long term gain; the houses are pretty much identical with good solid architecture (with a few one-offs tucked away). Bayswater also benefited from investment and now has great infrastructure and transport links. For those in search of more space for your money, a cooler vibe and all the perks of a prime postcode but offering greater value than more conservative Kensington & Chelsea, then ditch the postcode etiquette and head to Bayswater.

by Simon Barnes

Are listed buildings a hit, a miss, or a maybe?

Many people are attracted to listed buildings for their charm and character, particularly those looking for a period property in London.

Cliveden Place, Belgravia SW1 – Best Gapp

One of the overriding benefits of owning a listed building in central London is that around 70% come under either a conservation area or Historic England. This ensures that all listed buildings must be properly maintained and comply with particular criteria like choice of paint colour and traditional materials in keeping with the age and appearance of the property.

The standard, overall look and feel of properties in these streets are maintained, which in turn protects their value. In certain areas like the Nash terraces in Regent’s Park or the stucco buildings in Eaton Square and Chester Square strict maintenance and conservation rules apply. For example specific paint products and colours have to be used. While this adds to the expense of upkeep the result is that the occupants enjoy living in a street where the overall appearance is consistently impressive and immaculate.

Listed Buildings - Best Gapp — Cliveden Place, Belgravia – Best Gapp

Given that listed buildings in London are not uncommon at all, there is no premium attached for buying one. A buyer is far more likely to expect to pay a premium for a property because of its location, scarcity and will be guided by price rather than whether it’s listed.

It’s always a consideration for buyers when they buy a listed property about how to make it work and suit their 21st Century lifestyle; installing air conditioning, sound systems and channelling in cables are prerequisites for modern day life.

There may be limitations and considerations when trying to incorporate modern technology and certain design aspects into a listed period property, but experienced builders and architects working in central London are more than used to dealing with such factors and are adept at coming up with practical solutions that meet the listed building consent criteria.

by Simon Barnes

Destination Streets: How one street can turn an area around

As Christmas shoppers turn out in force, creating a hustle and a bustle around the streets of central London, it’s worth reflecting on how certain destination streets for shoppers have really undergone a radical imaginative transformation.

Destination Streets - Dover Street — The Victoria Beckham flagship store in London is a conversion of a three-storey Georgian building on Dover Street

Howard de Walden provided the template for a ‘destination street’ with the transformation of Marylebone High Street. Since then, we have seen the same process unravel across some of London’s key post codes. Mount Street and Elizabeth Street under the guidance of The Grosvenor Estate, Chiltern Street with The Portman Estate and most recently, Pavilion Road with Cadogan Estates.

In each case, a careful strategy has been implemented, in which consultations and collaborations with developers, retailers and agents has led to each separate area being designed in an individual and stylish way. Everything has been painstakingly put together, managed and designed so that retailers have been selected to suit the locale, to create the right atmosphere and enhance the shopper’s experience. Consequently, we have seen independent retailers opening specialist shops, cafes, bars, florists and bookshops.

As a result, these streets have become increasingly desirable with both a domestic and international crowd. And as they have become more appealing as places to go to eat, shop and drink…so too have they become more popular as places in which to live and that has led to steady price increases in each of the local areas

by Simon Barnes

Why Simon Barnes has a passionate dislike for purple

Some people fail to understand that buying and selling a house is a complex business. Any fool can stick a ‘for sale’ sign up, put your property online and mail shot applicants masquerading as ‘serious buyers’. However, once a ‘buyer’ has stepped inside, that’s where the work starts and when you need a real person not some distant invisible online robot; even recognising a proper buyer from a time waster

The hard stuff isn’t getting the property noticed and seen by a wide audience. It’s not in the initial marketing or even in finding a buyer. Where your money in paying your agent’s commission is in the negotiation process; it’s that which requires experience, diplomacy and the voice of reason and objectivity. Never has it been truer to say that when you choose an agent, ‘you get what you pay for’.

Ensuring that the buyer really does have funds in place; that they are managed, guided and navigated through the difficult sales process. Above all, that your agent maintains communication with them from start to finish. That way, any blips, potential problems or major deal breakers are far more likely to be resolved before a small problem turns into a full blown crisis. Mountains and molehills and storms in tea cups spring to mind.

An experienced and knowledgeable agent will understand how to turn a negative into a positive, preventing problems arising from any number of possible problems – from service charges to leases that can be thrown up during the selling process. A good agent will pre-empt and anticipate a host of scenarios, problems and stumbling blocks, know how to calm the buyer, reassure the seller and keep the deal on track.

A capable agent will save you money by intercepting and dealing with issues before they finally end up on the solicitor’s desk – by which time your legal fees will escalate and the ‘cautious’ approach your solicitor feels duty bound to take can trigger what could have been an avoidable u-turn by your buyer, who, of course, disappears.

So when selling your biggest asset don’t look to the false economy of using a property portal or an online agent, recognise that paying an agent is a small price to pay to sell your old home and secure your new one.

Diligent agents are like guardian angels – so make sure that the only purple you spot is the colour of their tie!

Walk-in wardrobes

Postcode Snobbery

Property in Bayswater

Eating Out in Bayswater

Buying Advice

Contact H. Barnes & Co – Tel: 020 7499 3434