Tonight:
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I must be dreaming, Moneypenny. A gadget-packed Mayfair property known as the "James Bond house" is for rent at up to £40,000 a week, as property prices bounce back.
Letting values for top-end homes had plummeted by up to 20 per cent from their peak early last year as the banking system collapsed. But rents are now bouncing back to pre-credit crunch levels, showing confidence in the City, estate agents say.
The three-storey "James Bond" house is poised to be rented for a record-breaking £30,000 a week for a long let or £40,000 short-term, 30 times the rent for a family home in Clapham.
The seven-bedroom, eight-reception-room Victorian property on Brick Street has an underground car park, car lift, swimming pool, gym and cinema.
Peter Wetherell, the Mayfair agent, said: "I have always known it as the James Bond house. It has all the gadgets."
Lucy Morton, of WA Ellis, which markets the property, said: "This level of rent is a first. The market is really strengthening. Lettings are a key barometer of how the City is doing. The fact that some reluctant landlords are moving back into the sales market is also creating a shortage of rental property, which is pushing up prices."
The company also expects to re-let a family-sized flat in Old Park Lane for £12,000 a week - more than £2,000 a week more than it went for last year.
Emilie Thysse, lettings director at Marsh & Parsons, said rents for smaller "bachelor pads" are also back to peak levels. She said demand for one and two-bed flats is starting to outstrip supply for the first time in more than 18 months. A two-bedroom apartment in Belgrave Road, Pimlico, cost £420 per week 18 months ago and is now £475 per week. A two-bedroom flat in Gregory Place, off Kensington Church Street, recently went for £625 per week, £35 more than last year.
Ms Thysse added: "We've done more corporate lets in October so far than we did in the whole of September."
Reader views (3)
It will never cease to amaze me how shallow these estate agents are, i presume because a mug is willing to shell out 40,000 a week,oh lordy the market is on the up,as for Ms Thysse comment "We have done more corporate lets in october than the whole of september, good for you but ask the guy who is renting if he would pay that money out of his own pocket i think one would hear a resounding NO.The market is going nowhere and we all know it.
- Peter Bread, London., 13/10/2009 15:04
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Moneypenny has morphed into Moneybillions.
Absolutely obscene.
Rip-off UK.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 13/10/2009 13:34
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It's all about greed and all about money. Everything is temporary. Don't people realise that. The prices for these properties is absolutely disgustingly high when people are scratching and starving. Sodom and gomorah all over again.
- Wq Ex Pat, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 13/10/2009 12:47
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