Weak pound helps sale of 11 Hyde Park flats for £108m

Developers today said that another 11 apartments at The Lancasters project have sold for a total of £107.5 million — an average of nearly £10 million each.

Prices have jumped by about 15 per cent in the past four months and with a year to go before the scheme ­— which overlooks Hyde Park ­— is complete, half the 77 flats have been sold.

The Lancasters is a rival to the Candy brothers' One Hyde Park development in Knightsbridge.

Developer Minerva bought the former Thistle Hotel site at Lancaster Gate four years ago for
£67.2 million.

The most expensive five-bedroom apartments are reckoned to be going for £25 million to £30 million. Smaller homes are fetching about £2 million to £5 million.

Many have gone to rich overseas buyers taking advantage of the weak pound. Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at estate agent Savills, said: "UK buyers drop into a distinct minority at this level. It is pretty much a foreign market. The main factor driving up prices is the lack of supply, particularly of new-build, which is what overseas buyers tend to prefer."

House prices across the capital are still on the up despite starting to fall in most other parts of the country. The average London property was priced at £338,708 last month, a rise of 0.7 per cent on April and a 14.2 per cent annual rise, according to official Land Registry figures. The only other regions where property values rose were the South-East and the North-West. Across the country as a whole they slipped by 0.2 per cent.

Southwark saw the biggest monthly price rise of any borough with a two per cent increase to an average of £363,251. The steepest annual rise was in Kensington & Chelsea with 21.2 per cent to an average of £867,681.

However, Savills said that the increase in the number of properties coming onto the market means that a "second slip" later this year is inevitable.