Repossessed ‘ultimate luxury’ One Hyde Park flat back on the market for £5.23m

One Hyde Park in London (Getty Images)

It was trumpeted as the best address in Britain, complete with retina-scanning lifts and five-star room service. But one of the “ultimate luxury” flats in London’s One Hyde Park is unexpectedly back on the market today for £5.23m – after being repossessed.

Billed as the “ultimate luxury” for the super-rich, the development’s 86 apartments went on the market for up to £136m in 2008 but have not necessarily proved lucrative for buyers.

“I’d go so far as to say it’s the worst investment anyone could have made in prime central London,” said Tracey Kellett, director of BDI Homefinders, a high-end buying agent.

“It’s on the market for much the same as when it was first offered, but since 2009 the prime central London market has grown in the region of 55 per cent, so it can’t be anything other than a bad investment.”

Peter Wetherell, of Mayfair’s Wetherell estate agents, said repossessions of this kind are “uncommon” at the high-end of the market.

However, he added that “most prime properties are bought for cash, but buyers for their own reasons often take out borrowing for a property. If a business goes wrong or goes under, the property is there as collateral”.

Jo Eccles of Sourcing Properties, has an alternative explanation: “Extremely wealthy sellers have racked up huge service-charge arrears because they haven’t been organised enough to pay them, not due to an inability to pay.

“This might well be the case with the repossessed property, and the bank might have simply had enough.”