London is awash with spectacular properties, and The National's London luxury property series showcases the best of them. This month, the featured property is a right royal affair.
Featured property
Warwick Lodge, Pimlico, SW1 - £10 million ($12m)
The key details
Providing 7,000 sq ft of living space and 1,005 sq ft of balconies and terraces, Warwick Lodge is a seven-bedroom house on the corner of London’s Warwick Square with what is believed to be the largest garden in the Pimlico.
The property was the family home of an ancestor of Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, wife of the UK's Prince Charles.
It is for sale via agents Jackson-Stops and Radstock Property.
What's the story?
Warwick Lodge was one of three family homes in Warwick Square owned and inhabited by the Cubitt family, whose patriarch was master builder Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855).
Cubitt founded his building company Cubitt & Co in 1810 and is renowned for building parts of the Grosvenor Estate (Belgravia and Pimlico) and royal residences including Buckingham Palace (east front) and Osborne House. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, is a Cubitt through her mother Rosalind, with Thomas Cubitt her great-great-great grandfather.
Together with his nephew Andrew, Cubitt designed the lodge to be the family's preferred home. He used his close relationship with Lord Grosvenor to obtain permission for the large walled garden, where the younger members of the clan played.
The Cubitt family owned the lodge until 1919.
Now Warwick Lodge, it has been fully modernised by design house Chester Jones and offers substantial accommodation over lower ground, ground, first and second floors.
What are the design features?
Warwick Lodge is a grand white-stucco Victorian house with large bay windows opening on to a walled garden measuring 70ft by 60ft, with a patio for alfresco dining and entertaining.
The house has an entrance hall, reception room and family kitchen/breakfast room on the ground floor, all opening on to or offering views over the garden. On the first floor is a large drawing room with access on to a roof terrace, and an anteroom with a step-out balcony. On its own private level on the top floor is the first of two principal bedroom suites, with a bedroom that overlooks the garden and opens on to a balcony, walk-in dressing room and a bathroom with bath and separate shower.
On the lower ground floor, patios enable natural light to cascade into the living spaces. The second principal bedroom suite has a sizeable bedroom, walk-in wardrobe, separate dressing room and a bathroom.
There are four further bedrooms and three bathrooms, a fitness suite with gymnasium, steam room, sauna and bathroom, a TV/media room, a utility room and a self-contained studio with its own kitchen, bathroom and separate access (serving as a staff flat or seventh bedroom).
What the broker says
What makes the property stand out from the crowd?
Warwick Lodge is one of the most important houses to come on to the market in the local area for some years, yet the price is highly competitive and offers substantial value-for-money compared to an equivalent house of this size and garden in Belgravia or Mayfair. Combining period and modern features, this large house offers an abundance of bedrooms, reception and entertaining space.
Are there similar homes in London?
There are other white stucco family houses built in Pimlico and Belgravia by Thomas Cubitt as part of the Grosvenor Estate, however, Warwick Lodge is unique because this was built by Thomas for his own family and the house is very unusual as it is built on a double plot and opens on to an extremely large walled garden.
Of the garden and adjoining central gardens of Warwick Square, the leafy setting is like being in the country rather than in the heart of central London. The walled garden is believed to be the largest residential garden in the Pimlico and Buckingham Palace area — only the gardens at Forbes House and Clarence House are larger.
What kind of buyer would the property most suit?
Warwick Lodge is perfect for a family and for someone wanting a London residence where they can entertain, work from home and enjoy the garden.
In recent years Pimlico and Warwick Square has captured the attention of buyers from the Gulf who had been looking at homes in adjacent Belgravia but been attracted to Pimlico because the homes and garden squares are very similar to Belgravia but better value for money.
Why is now a good time to buy in London?
With its green parks and garden squares, London remains a city which attracts buyers from around the world. As international flights have started to resume, the housing market has rebounded and prices and sales have begun to rise.
Now is the time to get on to the London housing ladder before the market becomes truly buoyant again as flights and overseas buyers return in strong numbers.
George Franks, Director at Radstock Property
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
From exhibitions to the battlefield
In 2016, the Shaded Dome was awarded with the 'De Vernufteling' people's choice award, an annual prize by the Dutch Association of Consulting Engineers and the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers for the most innovative project by a Dutch engineering firm.
It was assigned by the Dutch Ministry of Defence to modify the Shaded Dome to make it suitable for ballistic protection. Royal HaskoningDHV, one of the companies which designed the dome, is an independent international engineering and project management consultancy, leading the way in sustainable development and innovation.
It is driving positive change through innovation and technology, helping use resources more efficiently.
It aims to minimise the impact on the environment by leading by example in its projects in sustainable development and innovation, to become part of the solution to a more sustainable society now and into the future.
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
