Yahoo Finance Shard luxury apartments left empty because 'rich people don't want to live south of the river'
Five years after being built, developers have failed to entice any interest in the Shard’s 10 luxury apartments because rich buyers do not want to live ‘south of the river’.
Despite the average sum totalling an eye-watering £50 million, developers of the Shard boasted that it should only take “about 20 phone calls” to sell the 10 apartments with views spanning over London, the Guardian reported.
However, five years after its grand opening, all 10 of the flats remain unsold.
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According to brochures for the apartments which are no longer in circulation, on a clear day residents should be able to see the sea and the grandstands at Ascot. Potential residents were also said to have the luxury of being able to order room service from the five-star Shangri-La hotel below, and call on its maids to turn down their beds.
One penthouse at 735 ft sits just below the Shard’s public viewing platform, which up to 6,000 visitors flock to every day for £30.95 at a time. The lowest apartment on the 53rd floor, which was expected to sell for £30m, is still higher than any home ever built in London.
Speaking to the Guardian, Henry Pryor, a luxury property buying agent, said the location of the Shard’s luxury apartments was a key reason agents had been unable to generate real interest.
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“Kirstie and Phil tell us it every week, location, location, location. Rich people don’t want to shell out zillions living south of the river, it’s a shock enough living anywhere south of the [Hyde] park. Nobody knows anyone who lives south of the river.
“If they [the owners] could sell them for what they want for them they would have sold by now. If they sell they will crystallise a price and that makes it very difficult for future sales because the benchmark has been set. That is one reason developers chuck in goodies [like cars or fine wine] to keep the apparent price up.”
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According to the Guardian, Qatari owners – which purchased 80% of the building after fears that the project would fall through after the financial crisis – are reluctant to speak about the residences.
Baron Phillips, spokesman for Irvine Sellar, the recently deceased property visionary who led the development of the Shard, declined to comment about the unsold apartments.
