Sultan, a 20-year old student from Abu Dhabi, is typical of the new breed of Mayfair resident, as one of London’s stuffiest neighbourhoods is being rediscovered by a younger crowd.
Sultan is renting a three-bedroom penthouse flat above a shop on Albermarle Street for about £1,400 (Dh8,176) a week, according to the UK's Daily Telegraph.
The well-heeled student is one of a new breed of super-rich 20-somethings who are living and working in Mayfair, home to many of London’s hedge funds, private-equity houses and property developers.
“Mayfair has become a global-oasis for young people, and a “twin” of destinations like New York, Monaco, San Tropez and Miami, which are the other hubs where the world’s wealthy elite choose to relax and enjoy their leisure time,” says Peter Wetherell, an estate agent who has been selling and leasing properties in Mayfair for morethan 35 years.
According to the Who lives in Mayfair? report by Wetherell and Dataloft, 60 per cent of the neigbourhood's residents are now under 44 years old.
Between the 1950s and 1980s, Wetherell estimates that the average age range of owners in Mayfair was 55 to 75 and properties were often inherited rather than purchased.
Over the past 15 years the biggest rise has been residents born in continental Europe and the Middle East. Wetherell highlights that Mayfair is now the “London address of choice” for wealthy residents from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, France, Germany, Italy, India Nigeria and Russia.
Residents tend to fall into two categories: first there are the “staycation residents”, people who typically visit London two or three times a year and stay for anything from two to six weeks at a time. Middle East residents who “buy to leave” fall into this category.
They consider their Mayfair property their holiday home and the neigbourhood as a “village-resort” where they can enjoy luxury restaurants, clubs and shopping.
Then there are overseas residents, Anglophiles, who choose to make London their permanent home.
Wetherells reports that more than two-thirds of Mayfair residents typically eat out three to four times a week and Middle East residents spend on average £1,900 per shopping trip, which puts them far ahead of US shoppers who spend only £550 a time and Chinese shoppers who spend on average £1,688 per shop.
As a result of these trends, the Mayfair economy has recovered strongly since the global recession.
The latest New West End Company Report shows that annual food and beverage sales are up 9.1 per cent; over 80 new shops opened in the Mayfair area in 2014 and annual retail sales are up 3.8 per cent.
Not even major infrastructure works to build a new railway under central London, which has disrupted many streets and squares, has deterred buyers and renters from the area.
Over the 12 months to the end of March the average value of Mayfair residential property reached £2,300 per square foot, an increase of 7.4 per cent from 2013, according to Wetherell. While more than nine out of 10 of all properties sold went for more than £1 million, 28 per cent commanded a sales price of more than £5 million – up 17 per cent on the previous year.
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