A tired corner building bought at auction, its tenants bought out and its rent more than doubled. Valued at £3m.
Transaction facts
| Service | Acquisition, asset management and development, for a private client |
| Location | Queensway at Westbourne Grove, W2 |
| Complication | Two tenants on long leases — around £80,000 of legal costs to surrender |
| Works | Around £150,000; restaurant re-let, five apartments renovated |
| Result | Passing rent from £83,000 to £184,000; valued at £3m |
The brief
Everyone could see that Queensway was tired. The question was whether you believed that was permanent.
A few years ago an agent I know, working on the Whiteleys redevelopment, showed me the vision for the street. Whiteleys was London’s first department store, built in 1911, and it was being reborn at a cost of hundreds of millions. I remember thinking: this is not a mood board. This is serious capital, committed, at scale. When money of that size commits to a street, the street changes. The only question is when.
You cannot buy Whiteleys. But you can buy the street around it.
What we did
At the end of 2023 we found a corner property at auction, at the unfashionable end of Queensway, and bought it for our client. It did not present well: two tenants on long leases, £83,000 of passing rent, and nothing worth photographing.
Then the part an auction does not price. Twelve months of patient negotiation to agree surrender terms with both tenants. A new lease of the restaurant unit to a first-class brunch operator, chosen because of what it would do to the address rather than what it would pay on day one. And the five apartments above renovated properly, at a cost of around £150,000.
The result
The passing rent today is £184,000, against £83,000 when we bought. The property has just been valued at £3m.
There was no secret to it. We believed what the street was telling us, some eighteen months before the market priced it in, and then did the unglamorous work that converts a view into a result. The best opportunities are rarely beautiful when you buy them. That is precisely why they are available.