An overseas investor has bought nine apartments in a Notting Hill development for almost £11m as wealthy buyers increasingly target portfolios of prime London rental properties.
The Asian investor, who works in the hospitality industry, initially bought one apartment at The Pembridge as a rental investment before returning to acquire a further nine units in a single transaction through Beauchamp Estates.
The latest purchase takes the investor’s holding to 10 of the 19 apartments in the development on the corner of Notting Hill Gate and Pembridge Gardens.
Beauchamp Estates says the deal is one of the largest single London rental investment transactions completed during 2026 and comes as prime rents reach record levels.
£11M PORTFOLIO DEAL
The structure of the acquisition also potentially provides favourable stamp duty treatment.
HMRC rules state that where six or more separate dwellings are bought in a single transaction, they are treated collectively as non-residential property for Stamp Duty Land Tax purposes.
This means bulk acquisitions can attract the non-residential SDLT rates rather than the rates that would apply to individual residential investment purchases.
The Pembridge deal follows two other significant bulk residential investments reported by Beauchamp Estates during the first half of 2026.
Those transactions, worth a combined £67.39m, involved Gulf investors acquiring multiple luxury properties on Curzon Street and Conduit Street in Mayfair.
Beauchamp Estates says the three transactions amount to almost £80m of bulk investment, compared with one major £16m deal during the first half of 2025.
RECORD RENTS
The agency’s latest Millionaires Letting in London Survey puts average rents for luxury London houses and mansions at £4,177 a week, or £217,204 a year.
That represents a 67% increase from £2,499 a week in 2025, according to the research.
Average rents for luxury apartments and penthouses have increased 15% from £1,700 to £1,957 a week over the same period.
Beauchamp Estates records 59 Notting Hill lettings above £1,000 a week during the first half of this year, down from 115 during the equivalent period in 2025, which it attributes to properties leaving the rental market despite continued tenant demand.
The agency also reports a 30% increase in Middle Eastern applicants for luxury London rental homes during 2026 and a 20% rise among American applicants.
NOTTING HILL INVESTMENT
Completed in late 2024, The Pembridge is a five-storey development of one, two and three-bedroom apartments designed by Stiff + Trevillion.
The part-new-build, part-refurbishment scheme incorporates an original Victorian terrace dating from around 1858 and retains a historic “Dundee Marmalade” ghost sign associated with James Keiller & Son.
A 1934 corner building was redeveloped and reclad in Portland stone, with retail space at ground-floor level.
Vlad Viaryshka, Senior Super-Prime Sales Negotiator at Beauchamp Estates, says: “Having purchased one apartment at The Pembridge as a rental investment the quality of the building and rising rental values across London encouraged our client to buy the remaining nine apartments in the development.
“As the supply of prime London rental properties has fallen set against rising demand, there has been a rise in lettings values achieved which is now enticing discerning investors to enter the market and agree bulk rental investment deals.”
Jeremy Gee, Managing Director at Beauchamp Estates, adds: “For landlords operating in the London market they are seeing rising demand, falling competition and rising rental values.
“The capital’s premium rental market is being driven by wealthy tenants from the Middle East, America and the domestic UK market, who need a London base.”
