How the other half rent - an insight into Mayfair’s rental sector

One of the most respected and experienced agents in Prime Central London has given an insight into the lettings market in Mayfair.

Peter Wetherell, founder and chairman of the leading agency in the district - Wetherell - says the area is London’s prime hotspot for ‘best of the best’ ultra-prime lettings and urban pièds-à-terre.

While much of Prime Central London’s rental market has been hit with falling rents, he says record rental figures have been achieved for Mayfair each week so far in 2021.

Some 77 per cent of Mayfair lettings are one- or two-bedroom apartments. 

Accordingly the average letting price per week in 2020 was £752 for a one-bedroom in Mayfair compared to £538 for the rest of PCL and £1,249 for a two-bedroom compared to £811 in the rest of PCL. 

“The standard of quality in Mayfair is exceptional and the apartments that wealthy buyers snap up are often brand new or comprehensively redeveloped, and so Wetherell has frequently been employed to assist with the lettings and management services” says the agency. 

Major recent deals include the brand-new ‘glass houses’ at Down Street Mews, which have now been let for £9,000 per week.

Wetherell also highlights Mayfair’s historical relationship with pandemics. 

The area became attractive as a residence for wealthy Londoners after the Great Plague of 1665, which led an exodus from the ancient Roman City as prominent families sought healthier and greener grounds to live in to the west. 

The effects of the Spanish Flu a century ago led to the demolition or conversion of the old great houses of Mayfair aristocrats and plutocrats - creating the conditions for the market of stylish apartments that now characterises the district and attracts wealthy buyers from around the world. 

“Whilst we will not return to the same as before Covid, Mayfair has shown its resilience and its remarkable ability to change, to adapt and weather the storms of the past 300 years” explains agency founder and chairman Peter Wetherell. 

“I am certain that there will be a huge bounce in the coming months and years, just as there was in the 1920s as recovery from wartime devastation created a boom in construction and consumer goods.

“Prime Central London will drive the recovery across the whole of the UK and as the figures from recent months show Mayfair will be leading the way. We now appreciate what we have missed and possibly had previously taken for granted and our future Mayfair will be, maybe, a different Mayfair but it is up to all to make it a better Mayfair.”

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