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倫敦肯辛頓地產

(2013-11-19 02:02:44) 下一個

 Lisa Freedman, Financial Times 編譯:FT中文網實習生 陳亦珈

     

皇家街區的優勢

    “空氣清新的好地方,不隻存於倫敦上空的三尺天堂,還有肯辛頓,這個談笑有鴻儒的街區。”英國地誌作家John Bowack於1705年在肯辛頓記錄道。   
      

     300多年後的今天,一切依舊如此。威廉王子與凱特王妃,計劃於明年入住肯辛頓宮,更是有力地證明了這一說法。相比之下,騎士橋的繁華炫目,諾丁山的層次分明,在擁有高教育水準的W8區麵前,隻是小巫見大巫。 
       作 為王位的二號繼承人,威廉王子將擁有這處房產,是理所當然的事情,因為這裏住的大多是30出頭、在家庭中頗有地位的人。國際地產公司Finchatton 的聯合創始人Andrew Dunn,與他的妻子和兩個年幼的孩子最近也搬到了肯辛頓。“住在切爾西也不錯,但是這裏的房子視野更開闊,配套設施也更齊全,尤其這裏有頂尖的學校、公 園、獨立的食物供應商和時尚的女裝店,五髒俱全,且足夠休閑。因此,王子夫婦選擇住在這兒並不令人感到驚訝,至少在這兒他們可以像普通人一樣出行。”  

威廉王子的童年就是在肯辛頓宮度過的,維多利亞女王亦是如此,這也是該區擁有皇家地位的原因。對於城市家庭生活來說,肯辛頓的地理位置再理想不過了。訓練有 素的保姆和衣冠楚楚的孩子在選擇出遊的地點時,大多會去肯辛頓花園的中心湖上泛舟,或者是參觀彼得•潘的雕像。如今,戴安娜王妃紀念堂前的空地上建造了一 艘1:1尺寸的木製海盜船,孩子們也時常去船上扮演《彼得•潘》裏的Hook船長。

肯辛頓的教育水平也屬倫敦一流。威廉王子和哈利王子的母校就是諾丁山門的Wetherby預備學校,Pembridge Hall女子學校的女生們,也時常會到Perk’s Field的空地上玩耍,也就是肯辛頓宮的直升飛機停機坪。同時,這裏的公立學校也非常優秀,譬如St Mary Abbots小學,現任首相戴維•卡梅倫、教育部長Michael Gove都將孩子送去這所學校就讀。另一所花費8000萬英鎊重建的Holland Park School,經常被人們稱為“伊頓公學的預備學校”。

 誰在購買肯辛頓?

1689年,威廉三世和瑪麗皇後最早在這裏置產,並邀請巴洛克風格的建築師Christopher Wren爵士對諾丁漢宮進行改建,也就是如今的肯辛頓宮。到了19世紀中期,這個原本半鄉村的市郊街區,已變為城市中高級資產階級夢寐以求的住所。

維多利亞女王曾將自己的大半資產,花費在購買肯辛頓宮周圍的豪宅上。而肯辛頓宮花園裏的房產,向來是當地市場中的翹楚,曆史將之稱為“百萬富翁的必爭之地”,當然如今的百萬富翁已被億萬富翁所替代,花園中的綠蔭大道也已成為世界上最貴的住宅區道路之一。

這 裏的大片別墅,在20世紀均為大使館,如今都已成為家庭式豪宅。去年,切爾西俱樂部老板Roman Abramovich向比利時對衝基金共同創始人Pierre Lagrange支付了9000萬英鎊,入手一處包括15個臥室的住宅,後者在2004年買入時僅花費1900萬英鎊。這些曆史可以追溯到1843年的灰 泥房子,連帶著一條長車道和一座封閉式大花園,如今正計劃進行內部裝潢。雖然街道上幾乎所有住宅均為出租屋,租金交由英國皇家財產局管理,但是 Abramovich花費巨資購買的豪宅仍擁有潛在優勢,譬如街道兩頭會有武裝警察站崗,以及他將被邀請參加肯辛頓宮一年一度的花園派對。

    這個高級住宅區裏的鄰居,包括高鐵巨頭Lakshmi Mital,俄裔美籍石油寡頭Leonard Blavatnik等,但你不會在代理商的櫥窗上,發現任何有關這裏地產的信息。“這裏的房子從來不會出現在公開市場上,”肯辛頓Banda地產的總經理 Edo Mapelli Mozzi說道。“我也隻見過其中少數房產。”由於家庭式豪宅供給短缺,這個市場充斥著中等房產。

在 戰前緊縮的那些年,肯辛頓是英國中上層階級的根據地,住滿了金融界人士。那個時候,地產的價格仍然比較合理、親民。“我1977年第一次在肯辛頓買房時, 僅花費3萬英鎊,那時我是軍隊中的上尉。”Young說,“它幾乎花去了我工資的5倍。現在我的兒子也是軍隊裏的一名上尉,但是他一定買不起這樣的房子, 現在這房子已經升值到180萬英鎊了。”


從19世紀80年代開始,肯辛頓的居民從英國紳士逐步變為全球富豪,一波接一波來自世界各地的熱錢,開始流向這片治安好、空氣好且生活便捷的街道。

“如 今的海外買家遠多於從前,申請者來自40多個國家,”Knight Frank地產駐肯辛頓的合夥人Tom Tagney說道。當然,歐洲人,尤其是法國人和意大利人,還有俄羅斯人仍然占領著這個房產市場。他們尋求的房子,既要有寬敞的內部空間,還要有一個足夠 大的花園。Phillimore住宅區的幾處房產就符合這樣的要求,譬如阿蓋爾路上那幢五間臥室的別墅,售價925萬英鎊,還有Savills地產代理的 一處六間臥室的房產,位於高街以南的Cottesmore花園中,售價1675萬英鎊。

貴族級豪宅的標準

許多寬敞的大房子,都曾被改造為多間公寓,或是被用作高檔出租屋。然而近年來,由於豪宅的需求急劇膨脹,公寓又被改回獨幢別墅。Young有幸見證了這一趨勢:“相比兩三間公寓,獨幢豪宅配上花園,通常能夠將售價抬高百分之三十到四十。”


不 過,也不是所有房產都能達到貴族級別,起點至少要達到Hillgate Village中那幢油畫風鄉村別墅的標準,它位於諾丁山門西麵的街道上,售價約為200萬英鎊。Marsh & Parsons地產代理的一幢售價215萬英鎊的別墅也能夠達標,它曾是海軍的房產,美得好像是油畫中的景色。

上 世紀之交時,肯辛頓就以家庭式公寓聞名,那些磚結構房屋裏擁有挑高的天花板和寬敞的空間,均保留著愛德華時代的富麗堂皇,戴安娜王妃就是在這樣的公寓中度 過了她的童年。這些舊式建築,對如今的人們仍然具有強烈的吸引力,隻是投資需求更甚於住宅需求。譬如John D Wood地產售賣的一套249.9萬英鎊的公寓,位於Iverna花園中,擁有四間臥室;還有Knight Frank地產售賣的135萬英鎊的公寓,位於Falkland 城堡中,擁有兩間臥室。

 

“最 吸引人之處,莫過於這裏的治安和停車場,”Savills地產肯辛頓分部負責公寓業務的總經理Thomas Holcroft說道。“國際買家們渴望找到一個安置資產的天堂,他們很樂意為儲藏空間支付一點保管金。”這個市場最高端的房產要數Bedfords公爵 夫人城花園中的這套了。由Knight Frank地產代理的這套複式房產,其西廂和北廂是全裝修的舞廳式房間,售價3000萬英鎊,擁有5間臥室。

生活在肯辛頓

這塊區域也見證了房產價格的飆升。高街盡頭的肯辛頓宮是由David Chipperfield爵士為Lancer資產管理公司設計的,共擁有97間豪華公寓。正在改造的德維爾花園將於2014年完工,工程包括修建地下停車 庫、水療館和一些娛樂設施,屆時它將成為騎士橋地產中最為時尚的一處。

      循街而下,正是萬眾矚目的設計博物館,它位於重建的英聯邦研究所內。這幢現代主義的代表性建築,由普利茲克建築獎獲得者Rem Koolhaas設計,包含62間新式公寓,將於2014年建成。Chelfield Partners/Ilchester住宅區中的“拋物線屋”,擁有兩間臥室,起價200萬英鎊,將提供全職個人助理的服務。“人們總想要個門房,但是, 一個能夠接送孩子上學的助理,遠比一個隻會訂餐廳的人有用。”Ed Lewis說道,他是Savills地產倫敦分部住宅部總經理,負責公寓銷售。

家庭住宅市場的巨大需求,早已在肯辛頓最精明的地產大亨之一Jon Hunt的預料之中。1980年代,他意識到買家們喜歡在傍晚和周末去看房產,並因此創立了Foxtons地產以滿足這樣的需求。如今,他又意識到一個新 趨勢:無論家裏的豪宅有多大,在家工作並非每個人的愛好。2011年,他在肯辛頓高街開辦了“旱地商務成員俱樂部”,為成員們提供私人的工作空間以及五星 級賓館的舒適服務。“人們再也不用去辦公室了,”Hunt說,“去俱樂部是為了社交,因為人們更喜歡與其他人接觸。”

在 肯辛頓,人們就是這樣生活的。“他們會去梅菲爾和騎士橋置產,” Andrew Dunn說,“但是,他們隻會住在肯辛頓。”佐證之一,就是街道上舉辦的各種歡樂派對。“我們的街道並不太長,”Bedford花園的一位居民評價道, “但是我們能售出170張入場券。參加派對的人中,百分之六十是英國人,其他來自世界各地。從這點來看,肯辛頓就像倫敦其他地方一樣,是一個真正的‘聯合 國’。”

 
 (本文根據FT旗下奢侈品雜誌《如何消費》(How To Spend It)2012年9月刊文章 “Best Addressed”編譯。更多文章,請登陸 www.howtospendit.com)
 
 Best addressed

With a royal-borough designation, top state and private schools, period residences and new developments on the way, Kensington is the place to live – not just buy – in London

September 26 2012

Lisa Freedman

This Town standing in a wholesome Air, not above Three Miles from London, has ever been resorted to by Persons of Quality,” wrote John Bowack of Kensington, in 1705. Little has changed, and the decision of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to base their London life in Kensington Palace will only underline the fact. Knightsbridge may have more glitz and Notting Hill more edge, but nothing beats W8 for the child-rearing years.

“It’s a very civilised place to live,” says Peter Young, managing director of John D Wood & Co, who has been selling family homes in the royal borough for more than 30 years.

The royal newlyweds are currently occupying a two-bedroom cottage in the grounds of KP (as it’s known to locals), but next year they are scheduled to transfer to Apartment 1A, formerly the home of Princess Margaret. This four-storey, 20-room residence is presently arranged as four bedrooms, four reception rooms, a nursery, staff quarters and a walled garden.

Aside from being second in line to the throne, Prince William is reasonably typical of local homeowners, who are often in their early-to-mid 30s and on the foothills of family life. A good example is Andrew Dunn, co-founder of international property design and development company Finchatton, who has recently made the move to Kensington with his wife and two young children. “I’d always lived in Chelsea, but the houses here are a good metre wider and the area has everything going for it. Great schools and parks, independent food suppliers and interesting boutiques. It’s sophisticated but relaxed – more stealth wealth than flashy. That’s no doubt why the royal couple like it. Here they can walk about unremarked.”

Prince William spent his own early childhood in Kensington Palace, as did Queen Victoria, who expressly willed that the borough be granted “royal” status. The location could not be more ideal for urban family life. Generations of well-trained nannies and well-brushed children have taken the air on their daily outings to sail boats on Kensington Garden’s Round Pond, or visit Peter Pan’s statue. Nowadays, they can also act out their Captain Hook fantasies on the full-scale wooden pirate ship in the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground.

The educational establishments, too, are among London’s finest. William and Harry’s own school run took them up Kensington Palace Gardens to Wetherby Prep in Notting Hill Gate – and traffic the other way ferries girls from Pembridge Hall to games at Perk’s Field (also a helicopter pad for the palace). But the area’s state schools are equally notable. Parents at St Mary Abbots Primary, just off the High Street, include the prime minister, David Cameron, and education secretary Michael Gove; while Holland Park School, in the throes of an £80m rebuild, is generally referred to as the “Eton of comprehensives”.

William and Mary became the first members of the royal family to buy a home in this salubrious district, when, in 1689, they purchased Nottingham House (now Kensington Palace) and hired Sir Christopher Wren to do the makeover. But it was the mid-19th century that witnessed the transformation of this semi-rural suburb into a desirable location for the urban haute bourgeoisie.

Queen Victoria’s wealthiest subjects splashed out on deluxe housing abutting the palace, and Kensington Palace Gardens remains the pinnacle of the local market. Historically referred to as “millionaire’s row”, the “M” has, of course, now been replaced by a “B”, and the tree-lined avenue is one of the most expensive residential roads in the world.

The vast villas here, which in the 20th century were generally used as embassies, have once again been converted into family mansions. Last year, Roman Abramovich paid Pierre Lagrange £90m for the 15-bedroom house the Belgian hedge-fund manager had bought in 2004 for just £19m. The listed stucco building, dating from 1843, comes with a long driveway and a large walled garden, as well as planning permission to improve the interior. Though all the property in the road is leasehold (with leases granted by the Crown Estate), the Abramovich cash purchase brought with it further advantages, including armed police checkpoints at either end of the street and an invite to the annual garden party at Kensington Palace.

Those wishing to join this exclusive residents’ association (neighbours include steel magnate Lakshmi Mital and Russian-American oil oligarch Leonard Blavatnik) will not find details in estate agents’ windows. “Houses here never come onto the open market,” says Edo Mapelli Mozzi, managing director of Kensington-based search agents Banda Property. “I’ve only ever been asked to view a handful.” But, if the family mansion is in short supply, the family home on a (relatively) more modest scale is what the area is all about. In the postwar austerity years, Kensington was a stronghold of the English upper-middle classes – families with debutante daughters and stockbroker sons. “When I first started work,” says antique dealer Julia Pruskin, long-term owner of the Pruskin Gallery in Kensington Church Street, “they used to sell chandeliers wearing white gloves.”

At the time, property prices were reasonably accessible. “I was a captain in the army when I bought my first Kensington house in 1977 for £30,000,” says Young. “It cost about five times my pay. My son is also a captain in the army, but he certainly couldn’t afford the same house, which is now worth about £1.8m.”

From the 1980s, Kensington’s demographic shifted from English gentility to global wealth, as wave after wave of discreet international finance colonised its safe, green and convenient streets.

“Today, we have more overseas buyers than ever before, with applicants from over 40 countries,” says Tom Tagney, partner in Knight Frank’s Kensington office. Of these, Europeans (particularly French and Italians) and Russians still dominate in the quest for the perfect family residence. What they’re looking for is substantial interior square footage accompanied by an ample garden; those on the Phillimore Estate (such as the five-bedroom house Savills is marketing in Argyll Road, for £9.25m) and in the elegant streets south of the High Street, where Savills is selling a six-bedroom property in Cottesmore Gardens for £16.75m, are typically desirable examples of the genre.

Many of these larger properties had previously been converted into flats or used as genteel rooming houses, but the demand for such homes has become so great, that Young has seen (and aided) a dramatic reversal of the trend. “Provided a house has a decent garden, you can increase the value by 30 or 40 per cent by converting two or three flats into a single dwelling.”

Not all the homes are on this noble scale, however. The entry point for a pretty pastel cottage in “Hillgate Village”, the medley of streets just south of Notting Hill Gate, is about £2m. Here, Marsh & Parsons are selling a picturesque three/four-bedroom house (once the home of navvies who helped build the area), for £2.15m.

Kensington has, since the turn of the last century, also been renowned for family-scale flats, in its wealth of Edwardian brick mansion blocks, with high ceilings and generous lateral expanses. (The type of flat in which the late Princess Diana spent her youth). These solid, portered buildings, such as Iverna Gardens (where John D Wood is selling a four-bedroom flat for £2.499m) and Falkland House (where Knight Frank has a two-bedroom flat for £1.35m), still provide an attractive base for families, but recent developments have catered as much for the investor as the resident.

“What’s really performing well are gated communities with parking,” says Thomas Holcroft, director in charge of flats at Savills, Kensington. “International buyers want a safe haven for their money and are happy to pay a premium for security and large, lateral spaces.” At the top of this market are the ballroom-like dimensions of Westcity and Northacre’s fully serviced renovation of Academy Gardens in Duchess of Bedfords Walk (where Knight Frank is marketing a five-bedroom duplex for £30m).

The area, too, is witnessing something of a building boom. The Palace end of the High Street will soon enjoy a lavish 97-flat development designed by Sir David Chipperfield for Lancer Asset Management. De Vere Gardens is intended to rival the super-prime offering available in Knightsbridge and the properties, scheduled for completion in 2014, will be accompanied by underground parking, a spa and entertainment facilities.

Just down the road, the hotly anticipated arrival, in 2014, of the Design Museum in the reborn Commonwealth Institute – itself an iconic monument of mid-century modernism – will be accompanied by 62 new flats by Pritzker Prize-winner Rem Koolhaas. Two-bedroom apartments in the Chelsfield Partners/Ilchester Estate development, The Parabola, will start from about £2m and include, at least initially, a complimentary PA service. “People always talk about a concierge,” says Ed Lewis, director of residential development sales at Savills, London, who will be selling the flats. “But you’re much more likely to need someone to walk your children to school than to book you a restaurant.”

The practical requirements of family living have also been addressed by one of Kensington’s canniest property moguls, Jon Hunt. In the 1980s, he recognised that house buyers wanted to look at property in the evenings and at weekends and founded Foxtons to satisfy this demand. Now he’s noticed that, however generous your living quarters, working at home is not everyone’s cup of tea. In 2011, he opened the Dryland Business Members Club in Kensington High Street, to provide a new style of serviced office with the atmosphere of a private members club and the hospitality of a five-star hotel. “People don’t need to go to the office,” says Hunt. “You go there to socialise. Humans prefer being with other humans.”

In Kensington, they certainly do. “People may buy in Mayfair and Knightsbridge,” says Andrew Dunn, “but they live in Kensington.” And street parties to celebrate the jubilee were ample proof of that. “Our street isn’t particularly long,” said one resident of Bedford Gardens, “but we sold over 170 tickets. About 60 per cent of those who came were English; the rest were from all over the world. In this regard, Kensington is just like the rest of London – a truly cosmopolitan mix.”

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