‘Iceberg’ floors are out – so, what excites the super-rich?
As subterranean extensions disappear, Anna Tyzack looks at the new priorities off the super-rich and their mega mansions
Beneath the games room of a £15million house in Hampstead is the concrete shell of a swimming pool that the current owners have never fully installed. They had it built four years ago, at the same time as the basement gym, car showroom and cinema, in case a future buyer insisted on having somewhere to take a dip – a good call, given that around 400 mansions in London now have subterranean pools.
Yet there’s a chance that this pool could remain permanently hidden beneath temporary flooring. New analysis of council data by law firm Boodle Hatfield suggests that the trend for “iceberg” homes – those with lavish, mega-storey basement extensions that contain underground banqueting halls or car museums, and are often significantly larger than the actual house above ground – is on the wane. Applications for basement excavations in Westminster fell by 27 per cent last year – 99 in 2019, compared with 136 in 2018.
“Buyers are becoming less excited about amenities that require maintenance and can easily go wrong,” says Marc Schneiderman of north London prime estate agents, Arlington Residential. “In some ambassadorial houses, there are plant rooms of more than 3,000 sq ft. You need a manager to run it.”
According to developer Mike Spink, whose clients are some of the wealthiest people in the world, when it comes to decor, the super-rich’s priorities are changing. “I’m seeing more restraint and common sense. The home is a place to recharge. My clients want tranquillity and things that work.” Spink mainly works on grand, period town houses and, while he still builds palatial basements, he insists that they are in proportion to the size and scale of the house. A recent project in Pembridge Square, Notting Hill, had planning permission for a four-storey basement, yet, he ended up developing just one level. “It’s not about quantity of space any more,” he e says, “it’s about quality.”
Part of the decline in basement applications is due to the fact that around two thirds of houses on London’s prime streets already have one, Spink says. It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to get permission, adds Tom Gorrell, who worked as technical director for Spink nk for 18 years and now runs his own smart home technology company, GSIlondon.com. “You have to use the most respected builders and architects out there,” he explains – a widening gulf, therefore, between the haves and nd the have-yachts. In Kensington and Chelsea, a hotbed of iceberg houses, the rules are now so strict that it is a miracle if you obtain permission for a basement of more than one level spanning more than half the length of the garden – the council believe they y can have a “serious impact” on the quality of life of your neighbours. “It’s all about drainage and water run-off,” Gorrell says. “You’re interfering with the natural soakaway, which makes water pool somewhere else. Councils s have become very wary.”
No wonder, given the fracas that these underground palaces – there were 112 treble-storey basements at the last count, which take years, not months, to complete – can cause between neighbours. Last year, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page appeared at a Kensington planning meeting to plead with the local council to prevent his neighbour, singer Robbie Williams, from building a basement swimming pool; Williams’s contractors were made to complete the excavation by hand.
Comedian Barry Humphries maintains he almost died when a nearby basement project caused the ceiling in his £1.5million flat to
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collapse. However, at the top of the market, developers are still digging.
Last year, Fink’s central London development in Carlton Gardens, with a pool, health spa and underground gardens, was bought by US hedgefund tycoon Ken Griffin for £95million (a steal, given its original price tag of £125million). “Sometimes, with so much space, you run out of ideas of what to call it all: gun rooms, winter coat rooms…” Gorrell admits.
Earlier this month, John Caudwell, the Phones4U billionaire billionaire, unveiled a palatial 15-bedroom property split over eight levels, created by linking two Mayfair town houses via a new underground storey that’s already valued at around £250million.
But if proof were needed that money doesn’t necessarily buy taste, it comes with a dining room that has a
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river running through it, filled with fish; a “Faux Arts” ballroom; indoor cherry trees; and, in the bedrooms, gold-leaf sheets.
The biggest basement home of all is still to come, though; in Belgravia, former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani is
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merrily building London’s first £300million home, an iceberg of epic proportions, which will have an underground spa with Turkish bath and plunge pools, cinema room, luggage room and a garage. “Underground space with no natural light or view has got to work so much harder architecturally, which means you spend more money,” Spink maintains. “You’ve got to know that you’ll use it.” And have a specialist team of lawyers on side in case you hit an iceberg.
Here, then, is what the super-rich are really splashing out on.
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This is, by far, the biggest focus today, according to Guy Bradshaw, head of London residential at UK Sotheby’s International. The super-rich also like their mansions to have “winter access”, adds Gorrell, a covered underground access point where they can enter the house discreetly by car. Full-time security staff who operate as doormen during the day have also become the norm, and with so much run by wireless network, homes must be fortified against cyber attack. “They need a separate networks for guests, door entry systems and cameras,” Gorrell says. Thermal cameras are also replacing CCTV with virtual alarmed trip lights across boundaries.
State-of-the-art energy systems
super-rich buyers bu inquire about a house’s energy energ credentials, says Spink, but the attitude is changing. “No matter how ho much money you’ve got, you don’t don’ want to be throwing it away,” agrees agre Gorrell, whose business is i increasingly being commissioned commiss to integrate renewable renewab green systems into mega mansions. m “If you’ve got five homes ho around the world, you’re going to be looking at consumption. cons There’s a growing grow moral conscience.” Gorrell Gorr uses car battery tech to run heating and electrics elect via solar cells.
Scuba storage
Increasingly, basements are returning to their traditional usage: storage. In one of Spink’s houses, he installed a Big Yellow-style storage corridor, with separate rooms for luggage, scuba equipment, riding kit and winter coats, alongside a safe room, with tables for sorting valuables.
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In the past, t the super-rich rejected homes that didn’t have complicat complicated lighting systems, but now sim simple is best. “I had a client rec recently who was closing the curtai curtains whenever he pressed th the light switch,” Schneider Schneiderman says, “it was driving him mad.” The lighting, heating and s sound systems that Gorrell instal installs are operated by no more than fou four switches. “These are the world’s m most sophisticated electronics hi hidden behind a beautiful and incredibly simple interface,” he says. “And speakers are plastered into walls and ceilings, with music ‘p ‘pushed’ around the house from yo your smartphone.”
Serveries
Along with a designer kitchen, with two islands (one for the chef, and one for you to sit with a glass of champagne), super-mansions increasingly have a smaller, more functional, hidden kitchen, away from the living space, where the chef and kitchen staff can get on with their prep. “It ensures the food has a more seamless appearance,” Gorrell says. The entertaining space is also a cross between a dining room and a sitting room, with furniture designed for relaxing over long periods, while being served tapas-style dishes.
‘Buyers are becoming less excited about amenities that require maintenance’
The gym suite
Not just one gym, but a series of light-filled studios with sprung floors, dedicated to free weights, pilates, techno gym, yoga and meditation – some even have beauty treatment rooms and hairdressing salons and Formula 1 car simulators. Surge pools and snow caves, which produce real snow for muscle recovery, are also popular, as well as saunas and whirlpools.
No bling zones
Gold, marble and diamanté finishes are being replaced by calm, understated, tasteful interiors. “Buyers want their homes to be a calming, relaxing space without too many images, buttons and colours,” Gorrell says. Instead, the focus is on simple, bespoke features – a sculpted staircase, for example – and bedroom suites with dressing rooms and bathrooms for each family member.