Town-educated tycoon rents out stunning home for a cool £3.1m
MAYFAIR TOWN HOUSE FEATURED IN TV SHOW EARLIER THIS MONTH
A GIMSBY educated property tycoon has rented his stunning Mayfair town house which made a TV appearance earlier this month for a record breaking price. Newly-built Culross House, which is valued at £32 million, recently starred in a new Channel 5 TV-series called Sally’s Poshest Sleepover.
Kam Babaee, who attended St James’s School on Bargate from the age of 10, has rented the property through his company K10 Group for an eye-watering £3.1 million for two years. During the Channel 5 show, Kam and his family allowed actress Sally Lindsay to “test run” the mansion and stay overnight, sleeping in the principal bedroom suite and visiting the cocktail bar, swimming pool, spa and gymnasium. During his appearance on the show Mr Babaee said: “Believe it or not I studied in Grimsby which is even further north.
“My most excitement at the time was not the south of France or cote d’azur or wherever, it was Cleethorpes beach.
“I’d enjoy the whole day there and have a battered Mars Bar on my way back home.”
Host Sally Lindsay was amused to find out about Mr Babaee’s link to North East Lincolnshire, she said: “I’m not being funny Kam but I didn’t expect that to ever come out of your mouth!”
The new tenant is a young Chi
nese heiress, whose billionaire family made their fortune on the mainland and in Hong Kong from property, fashion and IT.
She was looking for a London ‘pied-à-terre’, providing a base for her visits to London with her boyfriend, housekeeper, cook and personal security team in Mayfair or Belgravia and, due to Covid-19, she preferred a house rather than an apartment.
The heiress has a London-based adviser who shortlisted Culross House, due to the luxury and quality of the interiors and the private gym and swimming pool – competing against a house in Belgravia and a third in Regent’s Park.
During the selection process the adviser happened to watch the Channel 5 TV documentary on Culross House and forwarded a
video of the programme to her client via Whatsapp.
The buzz of reality TV helped to seal-the-deal and an agreement was done in 24 hours, contract signed and the seven-figure payment upfront to K10 Group. Despite the large sums involved, the heiress has been shrewd since the £3.1 million is still less than the £4.39 million Stamp Duty she would have had to have paid if her family had purchased Culross House.
K10 Group says that compared to the cost of renting a 5-star hotel suite in Central London the mansion provides excellent value – the agreed rental for Culross House equates to £4,246 per night for 8,051 sqft of private living space including five bedroom suites, private gym, swimming pool and rear garden.
This compares to the cost of £31,420 per night for renting the 4,779 sqft three bedroom Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Penthouse, or £14,445 per night for the 2,368 sqft Crescent Pavilion Penthouse suite at The Berkeley Hotel or £11,213 per night for the 2,117 sqft Royal Suite at the London InterContinental Hotel at 145 Piccadilly.
Kam Babaee, Founder & CEO of K10 Group said: “K10 Group are delighted to have let Culross House to a fantastic VVIP international family as their Mayfair pied-à-terre, we hope the family enjoy living there over the next few years and we would welcome their stay becoming a ‘try-before-you-buy’ situation through our unique K10 CreativeFinance-Solution.
“At £3.1 million this rental deal is the largest ever paid to rent a new home in Mayfair and is also the largest upfront payment ever made to let a London home.
“The deal underlines the buoyancy of the super-prime lettings market in London at present and also the quality of our K10 Group mansion and the facilities it provides.
“When compared to the daily cost of renting a 5-star hotel suite in Knightsbridge or Mayfair Culross House provides outstanding value-for-money and far more space and private facilities.”
Located on Culross Street in Mayfair, directly adjacent to Hyde Park and Park Lane, Culross House, is a newly built townhouse-mansion on the site of the Coach House of the Earls of Essex.
It is described as a five bedroom ambassadorial house, complete with cinema/club room, swimming pool, spa complex and private rear garden.
With features including a glass lift, Hermes bedroom suite and marble entrance hall the specification, interior design and dressing for Culross House has been created by K10 Group’s leading international interior design team. They said they have designed the interiors of Culross House to be a celebration of the “Best of British” classic design, with key rooms inspired by famous five-star hotels and VIP venues from around the world.
Later this year, K10 Group is due to launch a £75 million mansion in the heart of Knightsbridge, Amberwood House.
Formerly the London home of Dame Margot Fonteyn and her husband Panamanian Ambassador Roberto Emilio Arias, Amberwood House, originally built in 1928, has been transformed by K10 Group into a 15,300 sqft private mansion, hidden behind walled landscaped gardens and accessed via a private gated driveway: the only mansion in Knightsbridge with a long private driveway.
At £3.1 million this rental deal is the largest ever paid to rent a new home in Mayfair and is also the largest upfront payment ever made to let a London home
Kam Babaee