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£4.75m to be Damien Hirst’s landlord, anyone?

April 1, 2011 at 11:39 AM Lawrence Hall 2 comments

This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.

If a mud-strewn houseboat mooring could ever be described as glamorous, then the patch of Thames embankment put on the market this week for £4.75m comes pretty near. ‘Dragon’ Simon Woodroffe and pop artist Damien Hirst call it home and previous residents have included actors Sir Laurence Olivier and Nigel Planer and musician Nick Cave.

These starry residential moorings are opposite Chelsea‘s Cheyne Walk – which itself has been home to celebrities such as Keith Richards and Mick Jagger – and comes with a a boatyard and work shop, offices, a car park and one of the most lucrative advertising hoardings in London (which can bring in a million on its own, it is claimed).

Do you fancy a slice of this? The iconic Chelsea Yacht and Boat Company residential houseboat moorings are on the open market for the first time

In general houseboat moorings on the Thames offer a bohemian atmosphere, sometimes bordering on the hippy but this one is the most famous, glamorous and from a practical point of view, safest.

But who would want to become the landlord here for £4.75m? The main attraction is that it’s a potential money marker. As one of the most prime locations in London, this is a unique opportunity and revenue streams include lease renewals and standing charges, the advertising hoardings, houseboat repair and maintenance work and the opportunity to rent out the site as a film and TV shoot locations.

These houseboats suggest an easy existence living the louche lifestyle but it’s not just the ‘arty’ types but a growing number of wealthy professionals, entrepreneurs, doctors, architects and writers moving in. It’s easy to see the attraction as these floating homes have changed dramatically over the past twenty years from basic tubs to floating luxury pads costing as much as £300,000.

They’ve come a long way: The view towards Battersea Power Station in the 1950s

If you’re interested in buying a residential boat there are a number of costs involved including mooring fees – at Cheyne Walk this can cost approximately £1000 a month; the annual car-parking fee, the insurance and a mooring license (which can be difficult to come by in London-you can pay £20,000-£50,000 every ten years). Then there’s also the cost of maintaining your floating home – the boats have to be dry docked every decade and the hull cleaned and resealed.

Entry filed under: Buying & Selling, Diaries, General, House Prices. Tags: bohemian, celebrities, Celebrity, Chelsea, Cheyne Walk, hippy, House, houseboat, Landlord, Mick Jagger, mooring, Thames.