In 2013, when Boris Johnson was mayor of London, he famously informed the former French prime minister Alain Juppé that since London was home to some 250,000 French nationals, he had the honour of representing France’s sixth-biggest city. Juppé, at the time, was mayor of Bordeaux, with a constituency just shy of 240,000.
Whether or not Johnson’s figures bear serious scrutiny (the latest census suggests there are just over 150,000 French-born people living in England), the sentiment was correct. London has been a home-from-home for the French ever since Huguenot silk weavers began seeking refuge from religious persecution in the 16th century.
The spiritual home of French expats in London is South Kensington, the location of London’s most prestigious French-speaking school, the French consulate and the Institut français du Royaume-Uni, which provides a cultural home for the community. French interest in the area has historically kept the style chic and the property prices robust. But Brexit hit the area nicknamed Paris’s 21st arrondissement hard. Prices fell across prime central London (PCL) — and South Kensington’s market was particularly keenly felt.
“The market was decimated,” says buying agent Roarie Scarisbrick, partner and head of London sales at Property Vision. Having almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2016, prices in South Kensington fell 19 per cent over the next three years.
Over the past year, however, SW7 has been quietly proving that down is not necessarily out. Driven by renewed interest from British buyers, prices for prime property in the postcode are on the rise. In August, before the property market stalled pre-Budget, year on year growth was 4 per cent, according to house price analyst LonRes. That might seem modest, but is decisive when compared with prices in much of the rest of PCL, which remain stuck or on a stubborn downwards trajectory. The average sale price in PCL fell by 2 per cent in the same period.
“People are gravitating towards convenience and community,” says Reme Nicole, an adviser at agency DDRE Global. She emphasises South Kensington’s character and charm, and says that more than ever, buyers “want to live in a neighbourhood which is walkable; they like the fact that South Kensington’s high street is vibrant and buzzing. You have got amazing restaurants, a lovely market.”
Historic investment — notably the early 2000s semi-pedestrianisation of the traffic-clogged Exhibition Road — continues to draw shops and restaurants to the area. New outposts of chichi Italian restaurant Lina Stores, smash burger Supernova and Lola’s Cupcakes are recent foodie additions; fashion and lifestyle brand Aurélien and cult Swiss sportswear brand On have announced plans to open on the Brompton Road. Next up, a planned £100mn-plus revamp of South Kensington’s pretty but overcrowded Tube station.
But buying agent Liam Monaghan, managing director of LCP Private Office, puts some of its appeal right now down to the potential for canny finds. Prices remain below the peak of the market in 2015 — flats by almost 21 per cent and houses by more than 12 per cent — and, as a result, “buyers can see that there is value there”, he says.
Average sale prices in South Kensington in 2000 stood at £553 per sq ft, according to LonRes — slightly below the PCL average of £580 per sq ft. Thereafter prices grew strongly, barely slowed by the financial crisis of 2008. By 2016, at £1,920 per sq ft, they had overtaken the PCL average of £1,825. The drop by 2019 was much steeper than in PCL as a whole: more than 19 per cent compared to 8.5 per cent. Prices currently remain below the average in PCL at £1,597 (a drop from £1, 601 in the summer,.)
William Duckworth-Chad, of Savills’ Private Office, believes there are upsides to South Kensington’s price falls. “In a falling market, buyers spotted its appeal”— seeing it as offering excellent value, particularly given its central location and the fact that its streets are as lovely as any to be found in Mayfair or Belgravia.
Cresting the architectural highs is the Georgian elegance of Pelham Crescent, with its curve of white stucco facades and private garden, and the willowy town houses of Cornwall Gardens. The cobbled Kynance Mews is a colourful oasis, particularly in spring when wisteria is in bloom.
The area is a sweet spot for housing stock that caters for a wide range of different budgets, says Scarisbrick. “You can buy a one-bedroom flat for half a million pounds or a 5,000 sq ft house on Thurlow Square for £10mn to £15mn,” he says.
Lydia Hsu was living in New York when, in 2022, her company asked her to move to London to launch the UK division of a tech company. London acquaintances “told me to look only at South Kensington or Chelsea”.
Hsu, 36, began her house hunt with an open mind about whether to rent or buy. She was shown a two-bedroom flat for sale in a period house on a garden square in South Kensington. “I walked in and thought, I have found my space.” She loved the apartment’s high ceilings and large windows, its sense of history and the views of treetops and a nearby church. The area felt peaceful after frenetic New York and she was within walking distance of Hyde Park and local shops including South Kensington Books, Jonathan Adler, Divertimenti Cookshop, and restaurants including Joséphine and The Lavery.
“When I was in my twenties I might have been more interested in east London, but in my thirties, South Kensington feels close to the lifestyle I had in Manhattan,” she says. Compared with Manhattan, Kensington also seemed affordable, especially considering the weakness of sterling at the time. Her apartment cost £1,678 per sq ft; its annual service charge is around the same as she was paying per month in New York.
Hsu now plans to stay in London — and specifically South Kensington — for the foreseeable future, in part thanks to the political scene in the US. “I prefer to watch what is unfolding from over here,” she says.
Scarisbrick says that while Hsu is one of a number of Americans gravitating to the area, it’s an “overwhelmingly” domestic market that is buying right now. And while established French families retain a strong foothold in the area, where the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle was once London’s main French-language school, now there are half a dozen alternatives — including those in Wembley and Brook Green — giving families a wider choice of location.
Jamie Moran, head of sales at Middleton Advisors, has worked in the area for 20-plus years, and has seen the dominance of European buyers, mostly French, but also from Italy, Spain and Germany, wane since Brexit, a trend which has been extended by the dismantling of the non-dom tax scheme earlier this year. “French buyers used to flock to South Kensington,” he says. “But British buyers have seen that they have a tremendous opportunity, and are moving in from places like Fulham and Richmond, because the price differential has lessened.”
Discounting, he says, is commonplace, particularly where vendors have overestimated the value of their property. Last month alone Moran is aware of an apartment listed for £3.95mn that sold for £3.15mn, a discount of just over 20 per cent. Meanwhile, on Ennismore Gardens, one of SW7’s prime streets, an apartment sold for £1.66mn, some 26 per cent below its original asking price.
Edward Bensted, head of estate agent Strutt & Parker’s South Kensington office, divides his buyers into two main groups. There are international families seeking main homes, who dominate the top end of the market, and British buyers keen to pick up a pied-à-terre or a starter flat for their children. “They read the papers and they think that now is a good time to buy because that market has been shackled by high interest rates,” he says.
Driving the price growth, says Bensted, are homes in the “South Kensington grid” — Onslow Square, Mews and Gardens, and the streets around them. “There is an understanding that there is a scarcity of these blue-chip properties,” he says. It’s notable that, in a buyers’ market, “none of our sellers are in a financial hurry — so they can negotiate on price”. Homes that need considerable renovation are slower to sell, he says. “Buyers don’t want anything compromised, and the cost of refurbishment is astronomical at the moment.”
When they were seeking a pied-à-terre, Paul Tournay, 62, and his partner Lee Cox, 60, chose South Kensington for its relative peace and quiet, great amenities, and its grand Victorian architecture. The British couple spent most of their professional lives working as nurses in the US. When they retired in 2023 they decided to shake things up by basing themselves on two continents. They now spend around nine months per year in Malaysia, where they rent a penthouse in Kuala Lumpur, and in 2023 they spent just over £1mn on a two-bedroom apartment in the South Kensington grid, and a further £120,000 on renovations.
“We liked the area because of all the cafés, restaurants and shops — and we enjoy the museums too,” says Tournay. “We have access to a communal garden, and the flat is on a Victorian terrace and very airy. For central London it is generally fairly quiet — but has a nice atmosphere.”
Moran agrees that despite changing buyer demographics, South Kensington retains its French flair. “You only have to look at Bute Street with its French bookshops and street cafés,” he says. “But it is not as obvious as it once was. There is more of a blend of French, European and British families nowadays, which makes it feel international rather than like another arrondissement of Paris.”
Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram