K10 Group has let Culross House for a record £1.55 million per year to a 24-year old Chinese heiress who paid £3.1 million upfront to seal the tenancy.

The deal – which equates to rent of £130,000 per month - 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.

Recently built Culross House, which is valued at £32 million, recently starred in a new Channel 5 TV-series called 'Sally Lindsay’s Posh Sleepover'. During the series property tycoon Kam Babaee and his family allowed 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.

The young Chinese heiress, whose billionaire family made their fortune on the mainland and in Hong Kong from property, fashion and IT, 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. She wanted something new build in Mayfair or Belgravia, and, due to COVID-19, strongly preferred a house rather than an apartment.

The heiress has a London based adviser who chose 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, the contract signed and the 7-figure payment wired 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. In addition, when 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 the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel at 145 Piccadilly (source: Elite Traveler).

Kam Babaee, Founder & CEO of K10 Group commented: “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 Creative-Finance-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.”

“We are delighted to see that K10 Group is now a global brand, acknowledged for designing and building some of the most outstanding mansions in Central London. We felt that by collaborating with a TV-series we could bring our brand to a wider global audience. Alongside showcasing Culross House the TV series gave us an opportunity to provide viewers with an insight into the family behind the brand alongside a view of the lifestyle provided by the shops and cafes of Mayfair. We are pleased that one of the viewers of the TV documentary will now live in Culross House and enjoy the luxuries of the K10 Group brand which offers the very best of London refined living.”

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.