Homes From Home

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Maddox Street
Curzon, 020 7589 2389
It's won numerous awards, been feted by glossy lifestyle magazines - Wallpaper, Vogue, Elle - and become a luxurious home from home for jet-setting executives, celebrities and the just plain loaded.

And it's easy to see why. Tucked away in a quite corner off Regent Street, No 5 Maddox Street, which bills itself as a 'hotel alternative', will indulge your every passing whim and pamper you to within an inch of your shamelessly self-indulgent life.

Consisting of just twelve one, two and three bedroom Zen-style apartments (bamboo floors, antique oriental trunks, rich colours and organic materials), No 5 was set up to offer a chic central London sanctuary to weary international travellers turned off by the institutional formality of Mayfair's upmarket hotels.

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Maddox Street
Curzon, 020 7589 2389
Here, the owners argue, you get the best of both worlds: a private apartment where you can cook in your own kitchen (backed up with personal grocery shopping), have a chef come in and do the job for you, or avail of 24-hour room service.

Thai massage, Pilates, and aromatherapy take care of life's little aches and pains, every suite is crackling with state-of-the-art entertainment facilities, and working guests can keep up to speed using sophisticated high-tech facilities (voicemail, fax, broadband) and an optional secretarial service.

You can stash your valuables in a private safe, dip into an extensive CD library and work up a sweat in a top-notch gym. They'll even give you a Muji bike, should you be fool-hardy enough to want to pedal through the central London traffic.

"Live, work, eat, relax, sleep and entertain with complete freedom," runs the development's marketing slogan. And so you can - though freedom does come at a price - £220 to £540 a night (£2,500 pw).

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51 Buckingham Gate
Colliers CRE, No 5 Maddox Street is one of a growing number of luxurious serviced apartments now operating in central London - others at the top end include The Ascott, Mayfair; 51 Buckingham Gate, Westminster; and Circus Apartments, Docklands.

Somewhere between a hotel and a block of prestige apartments, these developments are aiming to challenge the hotel sector and tap into the burgeoning demand for short-term corporate accommodation.

"You'll have a director in London working on a project who doesn't want the institutional feel of a posh hotel," says Sacha Rahbary, head of corporate services at Life Residential, who market Circus Apartments, among others.

"They want something more upmarket and individual and that's what these developments are providing. Some do nightly rates, and are close to hotels, but most have a minimum stay of one week - and there's strong corporate demand for three month stays."

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Life Residential, says Sacha, cater to both sides of the market - travellers and holiday-makers and corporate clients - and have seen business boom since they became involved back in 2003.

"We've enjoyed growth of 200 per cent since 2003 and now have over 2,000 homes at our fingertips - everything from studios to riverside penthouses. We do serviced apartments, short-lets and traditional long-term lettings and have accommodation available right across London."

Broadly speaking, the serviced market has two main players - large institutional investors who own whole blocks, buildings and hotel-style developments, and smaller private landlords with buy-to-let portfolios in some of London's prime locations.

For the private landlord the returns can be good - the premium charged on serviced apartments can be anything from 15-50 per cent - and there is, as Sacha notes, the added benefit of knowing that your asset will be kept in tip-top condition by professional cleaners.

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But while the figures look attractive there are risks. Richard Webb, managing director of Serviced Accommodation, which provides apartments to the corporate sector in Richmond, says it's not all gravy:

"It's true, the place will be returned to the landlord in pristine condition and if anything should go wrong there's a company, rather than an individual tenant, who will foot the bill.

"Some people, however, don't see past the 50 per cent premium. Remember, that has to cover everything - rent, council tax, gas, electricity, utilities, TV licence, and telephone line rental.

"And the apartment has to be fully equipped, right down to coat hangers - many tenants expect broadband, and then there's the cleaning service - usually once a week.

"Realistically, I think letting one apartment in this sector won't be enough - in my view you need about ten to cover the costs. In the serviced sector you will suffer more void periods and the economies of scale make it more viable."

Search for serviced accommodation in our special Short Lets Edition Often it's down to the landlord to put all of this in place, but some companies, like Life Residential, offer an impressive backup service - they own the furnishing company John Strand and also take care of the cleaning and management side.

"We offer landlords a bespoke service," says Sacha. "For a 20 per cent fee we take the apartment on and manage it, furnish it, organise the cleaning and find the tenants.

"This takes the burden off the landlord - serviced apartments need good furnishings, quality TVs and DVDs, hi-fis, towels and linen and so on. Tenants can be demanding, but we have the ability to meet those demands - if they want views of Tower Bridge, no problem, we'll find them that.

"We recently had an A-list celebrity in on one of our apartments who had a long list of essential extras - coat hangers from a special shop on the Kings Road, DVD players in every room, accommodation for a chef, a long list of special kitchen items.

"But that's part of our service - we provide bespoke solutions and can find something less typical and generic, if that's what the client wants. We think the serviced apartment market is definitely set to grow, not just in London but across the country, and we're very well placed to expand to meet that demand in the coming years."

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Serviced Apartments:

Properties should be located in prime areas and near tubes, restaurants, and shops etc

- The standards are high - landlords need to offer quality furnishings, towels and bed linen as well as good TVs, DVDS, hi-fis, and Broadband

- Remember that the premium rents need to cover all the extra costs - rent, council tax, gas, electricity, utilities, TV licence, and telephone line rental.

- Better to buy new-build apartments - there's less maintenance and international clients prefer contemporary styles to Victorian chintz

- Corporate and overseas clients are often very security conscious - portered properties and properties in gated communities go down well.

- Concierge and business services are a big plus for corporate clients. The same goes for studies or work spaces.

- Although rents are higher overall returns aren't necessarily better than traditional lettings due to the higher risk of voids

- Remember, the corporate sector can rise and fall depending on the market and other events - post-Sept 11 it slumped

Michael O'Flynn

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