Zoopla.co.uk Blog

Meet Central Square – the development that’s selling cool

May 24, 2012 at 2:54 PM Lawrence Hall 1 comment

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.

Cool stuff sells, especially when there’s not too much of it available. That’s one of the lessons of Mount Anvil’s chic Central Square development in hip and happening Clerkenwell, EC1.

A room with a view: The city skyline as seen from the penthouse balcony at Central Square

There are just 35 apartments left for sale out of a total of 170 and it’s not difficult to understand why.

Firstly, Mount Anvil has been smart about the marketing – they’ve released the apartments in stages to keep the tension between supply and demand. There’s also a massive shortage of homes in this part of central London and a lot of people who want to live here.

Clean and cool: Central Square’s penthouse apartment

That’s all because Central Square’s allure straddles two worlds – the creative coolness of Clerkenwell and the money of the The City. It’s just a 12 minute trot to the heart of St Paul’s and residents can be at Bank in under 20. Stroll in the other direction and they’ll be sucking on Coronas at the hip bars of Exmouth Market or tucking into the latest fusion cuisine at the agenda-setting restaurant The Modern Pantry in under ten minutes.

Manicured lawns: The internal communal garden at Central Square

There’s no doubt the scheme has been incredibly successful – possibly the fastest selling central London development of the year. Brian De’ath, Mount Anvil sales director, says about 60% of those who’ve already handed over their cash for a slice of Central Square are owner occupiers, 35% are investors and 5% will use their bolthole as a pied-a-terre.

There’s a big overseas contingent too – De’ath says about 15% of buyers are non-domiciled in the UK, while a large proportion of buyers who are UK based also originally hail from abroad. Add to this a small, but significant, number of downsizers who’ve bought into the scheme – presumably attracted by the shiny newness of it all.

Every apartment has a balcony at Central Square

After all, this is a classic Mount Anvil development: it’s got super duper quality kitchens and bathrooms, floor to ceiling windows, every apartment has a balcony or outdoor space, the communal gardens are manicured and inviting, plus there’s a 24 hour concierge and underground parking.

There are also knock-out panoramic views of the City from the new three-bedroom interior-designed penthouse, which went on the market yesterday for £2 million.

And that’s the other side to this development – the distinct lack of first-time buyers. But with two bedroom apartments starting at £610,000 it’s a simple case of price point exclusion and Mount Anvil are the first to admit their target market isn’t the scrimping and saving first-timers, who are so well served by other developers further east and north. Having said that, there are 104 affordable homes available through the One Housing Group

Of course, if you do have a spare couple of million pounds kicking around, you could do a lot worse than the penthouse. Although those that are easily distracted should be warned – you may never tear yourself away from that view.

Entry filed under: Architecture & Design, Buying & Selling. Tags: buying, central square, Clerkenwell, Mount Anvil, penthouse, selling.