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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Hilary Osborne

The £4,000 a week student flat where Fresh Meat meets Monopoly

80 ParkLane, Town House
The lounge area of 80 Park Lane. Unless stated, all photographs by Grant Frazer

There’s enough space for everyone to have their own cupboard for their baked beans, and multiple bathrooms mean no queues for the shower before lectures.

But it’s fair to say the average student loan won’t be enough to snaffle this particular pad – a £12.5m property on one of London’s best-known streets, which is being marketed as the ultimate in student digs.

Fountain House - Street View. 80 Park Lane is inside
Fountain House. 80 Park Lane is inside. Photograph: Nick Kent

With a rent of £4,000 a week it’s no surprise that it offers mod-cons and designer decor that set it apart from most people’s university accommodation – indeed, most people’s accommodation.

Fountain House - Street View. 80 Park Lane is inside

The three-bedroom townhouse has a front door on Park Lane, but behind the historic front are brand new interiors including glass floors, a glass roof and a triple-height central atrium.

The marketing agent Wetherell said that, so far, 80% of the inquiries it had received had been from international students or their parents.

Stamp duty increases at the top of the property market, and a new rate for second homes, have made buying a property much more expensive, and as a result Wetherell says it has seen a rise in the number of luxury houses and flats being let.

Fountain House - Street View. 80 Park Lane is inside

Landlords are keen to let to them as parents typically pay the whole year upfront and pay for cleaners and other staff who help keep the properties in good condition.

Most of the luxury homes on Park Lane are now lived in by student offspring of wealthy families from the Middle East, the agents said.

Fountain House - Street View. 80 Park Lane is inside

Peter Wetherell, chief executive of Wetherell, said: “This luxurious triplex has the distinction of being the only townhouse with its own private front door on Park Lane, all the other homes on Park Lane being apartments.

“This property will appeal to an ultra-high net-worth person from the Middle East or Asia who wants to launch themselves into Mayfair society. It’s leisure living, a business base and the ultimate address.”


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