Survey of locations with the highest percentage of second homes gives indication as to why so many long-established businesses are closing down in Kensington and Chelsea; in some streets in the borough second home ownership now accounts for 70% of all properties there
It’s no wonder so many businesses are closing in Kensington and Chelsea given a recent government survey has revealed that nearly one in ten properties in the borough are now second homes.
Third only to the Isles of Scilly, off Cornwall, and the City of London itself – the results for both of which are skewed by the fact that they have relatively small populations anyway – Kensington and Chelsea is described as having the “highest proportion of second homes of any densely-populated area in England” and most tellingly, it is the list of the streets with the most second homes that makes for utterly fascinating reading.
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The top five are as follows:
- Ashburn Place, SW7 – 92 second homes out of a total of 131 properties (70.2% second homes).
- Sloane Avenue, SW3 – 569 second homes out of a total 1,519 properties (37.5% second homes).
- Stanhope Gardens, SW7 – 96 second homes out of a total of 453 properties (21.2% second homes).
- Sloane Street, SW1 – 108 second homes out of a total of 596 properties (18.1% second homes).
- Kensington High Street – 123 second homes out of a total of 824 properties (18.1% second homes).
Previously, in February 2014, we featured a quote from an Evening Standard article about the area that stated: “Just walk around the back streets of Knightsbridge or Kensington at night; the lights aren’t on and no one’s home”. Given this is now fact, it’s no wonder that previously successful established restaurants are closing and being converted into shisha friendly cafés – as has occurred at four sites on Brompton Road, for example, within the last year alone – and it’s no wonder that longstanding residents are cashing in and moving out to places that actually have facilities that appeal to permanent residents and are making way for grockles or second home owners.
A simple OnTheMarket.com search reveals that the asking price for a tiny 313 square foot, 1-bedroom apartment in Sloane Avenue’s Nell Gwynn House is currently £649,950 or £2,077 per square foot. For the same price, one could buy a 3,058 square foot Grade II listed hall in the Hodder Valley in Lancashire or a 15th century castle in Scotland for just £695,000. It’s no wonder that more and more lights are turning off in K&C, but truly it’s a sad thing and if the character that makes the borough so appealing is to be retained, something really must be done to encourage long-term residents to return.
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Readers have their say
23 comments
A very good article. Sadly all true…….!!
I am from Bahrain. Stupid people, very stupid people just will tolerate your article. We spend money in the London and bring you wealth like you people never had before. You should be scrapping the dirt at our feet.
Don’t you already have plenty of staff doing that already?
What’s that saying “Fur coat no knickers”. Money has obviously not bought you Class.
To further your British cultural learning Sir, its definition is:
“Superficially elegant and beautiful but actually common”.
Bahrain is such a backward little country. You produce notthing and have to rely upon the equally backward and barbaric Saudi’s to put down those of your population who think your rulers stink.
You country’s low educational standards is exemplified by not even knowing that your poxy little country was once a British possession.
Wayde,you are a plonker of the first order.
Mrs M….if you have nothing intelligible to say; then say nothing.
Living in the barbaric backwater of Bahrain has clearly fried what little brain you might have.
Oh you do amuse me Mr Wayde,you’re such a grumpy wumpy so and so!
Well said!!!!!! London is ruined and Kensington and Chelsea is riddled with idiots like Malik (above). He can’t even spell!!!!!!
That castle has been decorated by someone blind by the way!!!!!
Who’s this Camel Jockey…!!
Sloane Avenue is also famous as the location where the most prostitutes in London live! Evening Standard reported this a few years back!
How perfect if “Malik” and his ilk buzzed off back to Bahrain and took Miss Church with him……………..!
No thank you. We don’t want the idiotic Ms Church here,you can keep her.
Malik………instead of berating you for you for your poor spelling and endearing lack of comprehension of our British ways…….you might benefit from learning and understanding the old adage ‘ When in Rome do as the Romans do ‘
And, to add a little polish – not Polish – to your repertoire; ‘ Form is temporary – class is permanent ‘ and, if this fails, there may be others who will admonish you instead
Well said Martin…!!
I was a victim in this desert of property greed.
It pains me to see what Lowndes Square has become , once a very elegant London square. Now, the property prices sky rocketing, resulted in all previous genteel residents departing and being replaced by the brash ilk of kleptocrats, and their courtiers and their hookers. This is also the favoured place for the Gulf Arabs,who race their cars day and night round the area..
The shisha cafes round the corner are of course thriving . one wonders if in London, or anywhere in the M-E / round here..
The newsagents in Motcomb street were telling me recently that their business is slowing down rapidly as the neighbourhood is being emptied of residents and just too many houses and flats are empty, no residents, no tenants , not even caretakers, just empty . I do hope the Gov will tackle this issue with a drastic new tax , the current ones are just not punitive enough.
Sadly, Mariathena you are right. There wll be a migration of the old established residents to parts of the Borough which still have a feel of the London we used to know and love.
Great piece.
What a sad demise of a stunning location. No lights on, no one home. Full of empty flats and properties and riddled with arabs who have large pots of money and little else to be proud of. K&C will eat itself whole at this rate. Great comments above, less the obvious of course!
Fine that foreigners come to London to improve our economy but not fine that they leave collecting their VAT at the exit. When I am in the USA I do not expect to pick up the VAT on departure. Sad that the lights are not on in parts of KC but the whole of London in being pushed that way.On another note a house in Chelsea can be bought for 6 million and a house in Battersea, Chiswick and North London are the same price too. Few English are that rich. Most of the money comes from abroad.
and money that has probably been stolen from impoverished inhabitants of their home countries. How on earth does the ex Egyptian finance minister afford two large houses in Eaton Square?