Sales at the Chelsea Barracks development have passed the £1.5 billion mark, bucking the sharp slowdown in London’s luxury homes market.
The landmark comes 18 years after the 12.8-acre site between Sloane Square and the Thames was sold by the MoD for a record breaking £959 million in what was then Britain’s most expensive housing land deal in 2007.
The scheme, which has an overall development value of around £4.5 billion, is owned by Middle East developers Qatari Diar, the property development arm of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority.
It was the subject of an extraordinary intervention from the then Prince Charles in 2009 when the future king objected to the original modernist design from Richard Rogers which was subsequently withdrawn by Qatari Diar.
The first residents moved in six years ago with prices ranging from £3.5 million to £55 million. When it is completed there will be 448 homes at the site, including affordable housing.
Richard Oakes, chief sales and marketing officer at Qatari Diar, said: “There is still quite a long way to go, but it is a great achievement. The whole of phase 1, 68 apartments, is sold out and we are 70% sold on town houses, there’s only 4 left.” The most recently launched building , 9 Mulberry Square, is also 70% sold.
He said achieved pricing had remained robust at around £4,500 per sq ft, despite prices in central London coming under pressure from the departure of wealthy non doms.
Oakes said: “We’re in line with where we want to be - and we’re continuing to build. We’ve been selling for 10 years and a hell of a lot has gone on in that period, Brexit, the pandemic, but the consistency of sales encourages us to keep out heads down and focus on keep delivering, the market has not really weakened at all ...London is an international city and is a place where people want their primary residence.”
He said the completed parts of the development are about 60% occupied over the year on average with spikes in the summer and a lower level over the winter. He added: “Chelsea Barracks is not a gilded cage, it is somewhere people genuinely want to live and that is really important to us.”
Oakes said the extensive facilities including an indoor championship tennis court which can also be used for padel, pickleball, basketball or five-a-side, two swimming pools, a 16-seat cinema, billiards room, were also a major draw for buyers.
Two more phases, 5 and 6, are yet to be built with plans for 119 apartments and 30 houses, although Oakes said the developer will seek to build more apartments rather than the houses.
He said: “There is very strong demand and we need to be able to feed it. The houses are priced at between £37 million and £55 million and there are only so many buyers in the world able to buy that sort of property.”
The Squire & Partners designed development has been built at a relatively low density for central London with seven publicly accessible gardens planted with native species, culinary and medicinal plants inspired by the nearby Chelsea Physic Garden taking up 40% of the land.
Rupert des Forges, partner and head of prime central London developments at agents Knight Frank, said; “The consistent sales rates over the years have seen record receipts for Qatari Diar that now reach the £1.5 billion milestone – making Chelsea Barracks the most successful Super Prime Central London development since it welcomed residents in 2019. Chelsea Barracks is the only London development to reach this £1.5 billion milestone within this timeframe - what a testament to a plan that started with 12.8 acres of prime SW1 cleared land.”
The next residential building set to be released later this year is 1 Five Fields Square, a collection of 28 apartments and 2 penthouses ranging from 1 to 5 bedrooms designed by Eric Parry Architects.
