Work finishes on £910 a month flats in Mayfair available for key workers

New flats just five minutes from Hyde Park are on offer to key workers for a bargain £910 a month.

More than a dozen apartments for nurses and teaching staff have been built in one of London’s poshest postcodes, where the average home costs over £2 million.

Builders have finished work on 14 council flats at Farm Street, Mayfair – a ten minute walk from Green Park and Bond Street Tube stations.

They were funded by Westminster City council and luxury property developer Caudwell Properties Ltd, run by Phones4u founder and multi-millionaire John Caudwell.

The flats are a mix of studio, one-bed and two-bed flats, which can be rented for £790, £910, and £1,127 a month.

The average rent for a one-bed flat in Mayfair is £4,000 a month and a two-bed typically costs £7,280, according to Foxtons estate agents.

The new residents will be neighbours with the Punch Bowl pub, formerly owned by Guy Ritchie, and Farm Street Church.

The flats are a stone’s throw from some of London’s priciest and most exclusive shops, restaurants and clubs.

Private member’s club Annabel’s is round the corner and high-end restaurants Hakkasan and Sexy Fish are a few minutes away.

The flats are available to households who qualify for intermediate housing in Westminster, which includes local residents and key workers where the household income is £60,000 or less.

Ten of the flats have already been snapped up and the Tory-led council is arranging for people to move into the other four.

The new building is home to a new hub for Westminster City council’s street-cleaning team with space for electric cleaning vehicles.

A statement on the council’s website said the central location made it easy for staff to get around and clean the streets.

As part of the development, a run-down post-war building, including four flats and a depot for the council’s street cleaning team, was demolished.

A planning report said the former depot was tired and in need of an upgrade. Work started on the site in August 2016 and finished in July 2021.

The design of the building won London architects MSMR a British Homes award for affordable housing in November.

It was designed to reflect neighbouring buildings in a Queen Anne style, with red bricks and diamond patterns.

Councillor Heather Acton, the council’s cabinet member for communities and regeneration, said: “Westminster City council is committed to providing families with high-quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable homes, and making Westminster one of the best places in which to live and work in the world.

“At the moment 700 homes are under construction, with many more built over the next decade. We are proud of this development providing intermediate housing units at the heart of Westminster.”

There are over 4,000 households waiting for council homes in Westminster.

A council spokesperson said: “The council is committed to providing high-quality affordable homes across the whole city, and re-purposing assets such as Farm Street is at the core of the council’s approach to tackling the London housing crisis.

“Creating an innovative partnership with a local developer to create something that delivers more high-quality homes and a state-of-the-art council depot, all housed in a striking piece of architecture has vastly improved the streetscape.”

Pictured top: The exterior of the building (image: MSMR/Veronica Rodriguez Photography)