Baku, December 2, AZERTAC

Prices at London’s most expensive ever residential development will start at £35 million – around 70 times the average cost of a home in the capital – the Standard can reveal.

The first details of pricing at billionaire John Caudwell’s spectacular £2 billion 1 Mayfair development emerged after a traditional “topping out” ceremony at the weekend to mark a key stage in the construction of the building.

The scheme, due to complete in Spring 2026 after a six years build, will easily eclipse London’s previous record breaker, the Candy brothers’ £1.3 billion One Hyde Park development in Knightsbridge.

Caudwell said there are already more than 600 super-rich potential buyers on a waiting list of billionaires and centi-millionaires who have expressed an interest in making a purchase at the scheme.

But it will have just 24 “principal residences” including lateral apartments, penthouses and townhouses with up to five bedrooms, and five more smaller “pieds-à-terre” apartments.

The size and configuration of the homes have not yet been revealed but the developers say even the smallest home in the building will start with a guide price only ever exceeded by only a handful of mega-apartments and mansions in London’s elite neighbourhoods. The average price of all 29 units will be close to £70 million,

The entry level price of £35 million is 70 times the average London property value of around £500,000, and 130 times the national average price of £268,000 revealed in today’s Nationwide house price survey for November.

The development’s basement is being dug down to 90ft below ground level and will house a health spa with a 20 metre swimming pool as well as a car park.

The designs were led by New York based architect Robert Stern and practice RAMSA, with contractors, Mace, the construction managers and PJ Carey responsible for the creation of the basement substructure and superstructure.

The topping out of 1 Mayfair was attended by Caudwell, 72, who founded the mobile phones retailers Phones 4u, as well as senior members of the construction team.

The ceremony was marked by the final steel rafter, one of 79 at roof level, being put into place on the top of the nine-storey main apartment building.

That completed the work on the structure and basement with the next phase, finishing of the shell and core works and services and the installation of the Portland stone façades, not due to complete until nest summer. Caudwell and members of the delivery team signed the rafter beam with their signatures.

The 300,000 sq ft building close to Mount Street occupies half a block with façades fronting onto South Audley Street, Hill Street and Waverton Street.

Features will include porticoed entrances, 648 timber windows, handcrafted by Colchester based window makers Mumford & Wood, 21 balconies, colonnades and a tiered façade to the upper floors providing pavilions with high ceilings opening onto private rooftop terraces.

Interiors include a rotunda featuring a ceiling with hand-painted frescos based on Michelangelo's Map of the Heavens in the Vatican, a reception room with a double height ceiling and 18ft high French windows overlooking the garden, a Palace of Versailles Hall of Mirrors-style crystal callery, created from over 1,264 hand-set pieces of cut glass, a library and a garden gallery, with seating areas opening directly onto the central courtyard garden. The building will have 15 passenger and goods/staff lifts and two car lifts.

Caudwell said: “The topping out marks the completion of the structure and basement of 1 Mayfair and underlines the advanced stage of the project’s construction. 1 Mayfair will deliver a legacy for London in the form of a landmark residential scheme that is timeless in terms of its architecture, design and build quality, setting a benchmark for London living and luxury design for centuries to come.”

Dan Lobitz, Partner at RAMSA said: “The design of 1 Mayfair has adapted Mayfair’s architectural traditions for the way people live today. The exterior façades reinterpret Georgian architectural precedents with finely carved Portland stone cladding, handcrafted metalwork and large timber windows that maximise views and natural light. Internal spaces draw inspiration from the classical layouts of historic English houses.

“Because 1 Mayfair occupies a large city block site we were able to create a building with a complex footprint, designed around a central garden, with large floor plates that afford the residences generously sized principal rooms.”