Chelsea Barracks
New developments in Prime Central London have always been sought after, especially by foreign purchasers looking to invest in overseas property. However, finding the space to construct high-rise blocks offering opulent living quarters, underground parking and a concierge service is the main problem faced by developers.
According to Lonres.com, the ‘agents only’ property site, Candy and Candy have achieved over £6,000 per square foot for a 5 bed apartment in their iconic One Hyde Park and a 5 bed apartment achieved £5,260 per square foot at 199 Knightsbridge, showing people are ready and willing to spend money when the opportunity presents itself. Even South of the river is commanding good prices with a sale of an off-market apartment in The Corniche, Albert Embankment achieving £2,395 per square foot – prices more akin to Belgravia and Knightsbridge.
One Hyde Park (photo source: Standard)
Due to the obvious success of these large-scale developments, we have been keeping a close eye on the latest offerings to the London property market, including the infamous Chelsea Barracks site.
The super prime 13-acre plot, located to the south of Sloane Square, was originally home to the Queen’s Guard but sold off by the Ministry of Defence in 2007 before being snapped up by Qatari Diar for a cool £959 million. However, the project has been far from smooth sailing and in 2009 Prince Charles wrote to the Prime Minister of Qatar expressing his deep concern for the modernist proposal drawn up by architect Lord Rogers, writing that the plans “made my heart sink”.
In March, six years after Prince Charles’ intervention and a thorough re-working of the plans by Squire and Partners, contractors moved in and began work on the £3 billion scheme.
View of the site in March from Pimlico Road
The first phase will consist of three blocks, up to eight storeys high, delivering 74 super-prime residential units along the north-western edge. The top two floors of each block will contain luxury penthouse apartments, set back from the building line providing an element of privacy.
Once all phases are completed, there will be 448 apartments including 123 designated affordable properties, five acres of gardens and open spaces, a public sports centre, commercial units and a children’s playground.
Given the demand for housing in the local area, unsurprisingly a number of flats have already sold off plan achieving substantial prices.
The Masterplan (Source: chelseabarrackspartnership.com)
