Kensington House
Portfolio
Kensington House
Our focus is on established residential neighbourhoods across prime and outer-prime London. Explore the areas that shape the portfolio, from Notting Hill and South Kensington to Hammersmith, Chiswick and Wimbledon, with Wentworth Estate presented separately as our Surrey location.
A Victorian family house in West Hampstead, fully refurbished and sold in January 2026. The project shows the approach behind our homes: a well-chosen street, a period house treated with respect, and a calm, considered finish throughout.
Achilles Road is one of West Hampstead’s ‘Greek Streets’, a small grid of Victorian roads widely regarded as among the neighbourhood’s most attractive residential addresses.
The location brings together the qualities that draw families to West Hampstead: a village atmosphere centred on West End Lane, highly regarded local schools, and Hampstead Heath and other green spaces close at hand. The Jubilee line, London Overground and Thameslink are all within walking distance, giving quick access to the West End, the City and onward travel.
The property is a classic Victorian terraced house, with a bay-fronted brick façade, decorative stonework and a tiled front path behind traditional railings. The aim was a turnkey family home: one that keeps the character buyers look for in these streets, with the space, light and finish expected of a modern London house.
Behind the façade, the refurbishment delivered a generous kitchen and dining room opening towards the garden, a formal reception room at the front, well-proportioned bedrooms, contemporary bathrooms and a landscaped rear terrace.
Kitchen and dining. The rear of the ground floor became a long, light-filled kitchen and dining room under rooflights. Painted Shaker-style cabinetry in a soft blue-grey, with brass handles, runs along one wall opposite a long island with a marble-effect worktop and matching splashback, finishing in a dining area beside the garden.
Reception rooms. At the front, period cornicing, the bay window and column radiators frame a parquet floor laid in a chevron pattern, with a statement chandelier and warm, neutral walls that let the furniture and artwork lead.
Bedrooms and storage. Bedrooms are calm and layered, with upholstered headboards, full-length curtains and wall lights. Fitted walnut-toned wardrobes with interior drawers keep storage discreet.
Hall and stair. A textured, grasscloth-style wallcovering, a tall arched mirror with a brass frame and a carpeted stair runner give the circulation spaces the same care as the main rooms.
Bathrooms. Two-tone painted walls, large-format tiles, a walk-in shower with brushed-brass fittings and wall-hung sanitaryware bring a contemporary, hotel-like feel.
Garden. The rear garden was reworked as a tiered terrace, with broad steps, rendered planters, black metal balustrades and dark slatted fencing for privacy.
Descriptions are based on the completed project photography.
The refurbished house sold for £2.6 million, at the full asking price, to a cash buyer within twelve days of its launch to the market. The sale was announced in January 2026.
Achilles Road is presented here as a completed case study, separately from the eighteen homes in our current portfolio.
For a property enquiry, a potential project or an introduction to Kensington House, contact our team directly.
Official figures first, then our dated research and the archive of Kensington House market commentary. Archive articles keep their original dates and are kept as a record of their time.
−3.3%London average price, year to July 2026
The latest official index shows the average London price at £550,037, down 3.3% on a year earlier, while England and the UK as a whole recorded modest annual rises.
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The Bank of England kept Bank Rate at 3.75% at its September meeting, with three of nine members voting for an increase to 4%.
Decision of 16 September 2026, published 17 September 2026
The transformation of Olympia in West Kensington began opening in 2026, led by a 3,800-capacity music venue, with a new West End-scale theatre to follow in 2027.
Reports dated May and September 2026
The All England Club’s plans to build on the former Wimbledon Park golf course remain unbuilt, after the courts allowed a further challenge to proceed in July 2026.
Court decision reported 22 July 2026
Families comparing neighbourhoods by school quality will no longer see new ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’ headline grades for state schools in England.
Change took effect 10 November 2025
A further Frank Gehry-designed phase of 306 homes was approved in May 2025, by which time more than 3,000 people lived on the 42-acre estate.
Report dated 2 May 2025Published on KensingtonHouse.com and kept with original dates and images. Forecasts were made at the time and have not been updated; where official data later became available, the article says so.
We expect positive price growth this year – in a climate of falling mortgage rates, improving affordability and the release of some pent-up demand. Rightmove reported that first-time buyer demand in the capital in September 2024 was 28% ahead of 2023, moving up to 31% after the autumn budget.
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November marked the fifth consecutive monthly UK house price rise and the biggest leap so far this year, according to Halifax. The mortgage lender said property values were up 1.3% compared with October.
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International property company JLL has said it expects Greater London house prices to increase by 22% over the next 5-years, beating nationwide UK growth predictions of 20% over the same time span. The firm added that within those headline figures, it expected lower value markets to see stronger growth towards the beginning of the period, with more expensive markets like London and the South East outperforming in the second half.
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The September data from online portal Zoopla showed that UK property sales volumes were at their highest level since pandemic restrictions were lifted in 2020.
Read the archive article →The latest inflation figures from September showed a surprise drop to 1.7% – the first time since April 2021 that inflation has dipped below the Bank of England’s target of 2%.
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September has seen the fastest annual house price growth in around two years, according to Nationwide’s latest index, with average London house prices hitting £524,685.
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On 1 August, the Bank of England reduced the base rate to 5% as predicted by most analysts. The impact on buyer confidence is already clear, with more buyers entering the market over the summer and analysts looking ahead to a busy autumn.
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UK house prices rose by 0.7% in September, boosting the annual growth rate from 2.4% in August to 3.2% in September—the fastest pace recorded since November 2022 (4.4%). Average prices are now just 2% below the all-time highs of summer 2022.
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Recent data from Hamptons showed that falling mortgage rates are attracting first-time buyers back to the capital – this group has purchased a record 48% of homes sold in London so far this year, up from 41% in 2023 and 28% a decade ago.
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The latest analysis of the prime London property market from estate agent Savills celebrates the resilience of prime London prices in the run-up to the general election and predicts a stronger performance in the second half of the year now that “most uncertainty is behind us”. In the Prime Outer London neighbourhoods that Kensington House invests in – including Battersea, Wimbledon and Chiswick – a continued supply-and-demand imbalance for family houses has supported values.
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At the end of July, Nationwide released a five-year fixed rate mortgage priced at 3.99%, marking the first time the mortgage market has seen a sub-4% deal since February.
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The latest data from the Office of National Statistics showed property prices in London increasing in May, with the average price hitting £523,376.
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On 22 May, the government announced that the next general election has been set for 4 July. Industry leaders have broadly welcomed the announcement as an opportunity to provide greater certainty for UK businesses, workers and investors.
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London now has the fastest rising property prices in the south of England, according to the latest figures from lender Nationwide. Prices in the capital rose by 1.6% in the first quarter of the year. Meanwhile data from estate agent Hamptons shows that a home in London is now more likely to sell above its asking price than elsewhere in England and Wales, providing further evidence of growing confidence in the capital’s housing market.
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Strong buyer demand and brisk transaction volumes during March combined to push the average UK home’s asking price up by 1.5%, according to Rightmove.
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The average British house price reached a record high of £375,131 in May, according to Rightmove. Asking prices of properties coming to market rose 0.8% month on month thanks to pent-up demand from buyers who had paused their plans last year.
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Recent research from the Resolution Foundation has shown that services now account for a record share of Britain’s total exports – with London by far the biggest driver of the boom.
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The first month of the new year has seen Halifax, the UK’s biggest lender, cut interest rates by close to a whole percentage point. Interest on their two-year fix was cut by 0.83%, with HSBC swiftly following suit by introducing new deals including a five-year fix at 3.94%.
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National house prices rose by 2.9% in the final three months of 2023 according to the Halifax house price index, confounding the media’s expectations who continue to promote the false idea that the property market is not as strong as we know it is.
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The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported last week that its measure of forecasted sales for the next three months had risen to 6 in November, up from -17 in October and the first positive reading it has offered since April 2022.
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The Office of National Statistics’ recently revised methodology for calculating rental price growth shows that increases have been even stronger than previously thought. In the capital, year-on-year rental growth hit 10% in October 2023, compared with a previous estimate of 6.8%.
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Building society Nationwide announced recently that UK house prices had increased by 0.9% between September and October thanks to scarcity of supply and a strong labour market. Robert Gardner, Chief Economist at Nationwide, said the rise probably reflected the “constrained” supply of properties on the market, adding that there was “little sign of forced selling, which would exert downward pressure on prices, as labour market conditions are solid and mortgage arrears are at historically low levels".
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There is growing confidence amongst mortgage brokers that we will see the return of sub-4% mortgage rates before summer 2024, following the Bank of England’s decision to once again maintain the base rate of interest at 5.25%.
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Savills reports that the market for London’s most expensive homes has remained strong this year, highlighting the resilience of wealthy cash buyers.
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Evidence first. Judgement always.
How Kensington House is applying artificial intelligence to buying, improving and managing London homes: what we use it for, how every output is checked, and where people stay in charge.
Every figure behind an offer, a budget or an asking price should trace back to a dated source that a person has checked.
AI gathers and drafts; the directors decide. AI cannot judge whether a house is right, negotiate with a seller or stand behind advice.
The RICS standard on responsible AI, in effect since 9 March 2026, puts the professional's judgement at the centre of practice. RICS
The refurbished Victorian house sold to a cash buyer at its full asking price of £2.6 million, within twelve days of launch. The sale was announced in January 2026.
One sale reflects the house, the street, the timing and the buyer. We include it because pricing for sale is one of the areas where we are developing evidence-led AI support, not because AI produced this result.
Read the case study →Six applications support the decision to buy, from the first look to the lender. Each produces evidence for a person to check; none produces the decision.
Gathers recorded sales on the street and its neighbours, then adjusts them for size, condition, layout and date to frame the value range for an offer or an asking price.
Evidence and checksHM Land Registry Price Paid Data is monthly and records price, date and type but not floor area, so areas are matched from EPC records or measured plans and checked by hand. HM Land Registry
Reads plans for what drives value: ceiling heights, usable loft headroom, stair layouts that allow or prevent a reconfiguration, garden depth and the true size of each bedroom.
Evidence and checksChecked against standards such as London Plan 2021 Policy D6, which sets a 2.5m minimum floor-to-ceiling height for at least 75% of each new dwelling's Gross Internal Area, and confirmed by a measured survey. London Plan D6
Surfaces approvals, refusals and conditions on the street and nearby, alongside the borough's policies, so the realistic scope for improvement is understood at offer stage.
Evidence and checksDecisions are read in full on the council portal, and an architect or planning consultant advises before any application. Public records are improving: in June 2026 the government made its Extract tool, built by the Incubator for AI (i.AI) with MHCLG, available to every local planning authority in England. GOV.UK, 16 June 2026
Builds an early cost range from location-adjusted benchmark data and the specification the finished home needs, separating refurbishment from conversion work.
Evidence and checksAn estimate frames the offer; it does not replace a quantity surveyor's cost plan, which is still commissioned, with contingency stated alongside the figure.
Reviews leases, tenancy types, short-let history and title covenants that affect what can be built, let or financed.
Evidence and checksA solicitor reviews before exchange. Since 1 May 2026 most private tenancies in England are assured periodic tenancies and section 21 has been abolished; in London, short lets above 90 nights a year need planning permission. Renters' Rights Act roadmap Haringey Council
Drafts cash-flow models, sensitivity cases across a range of sale values and lender-ready summaries.
Evidence and checksEvery input is traced to its source, Stamp Duty Land Tax is checked at current HMRC rates (including the 5% additional-property surcharge), and finance terms are set by people. GOV.UK
After purchase the work shifts to keeping homes compliant, well maintained and correctly priced. Most of these uses are proposed and not yet adopted.
A compliance calendar for each home and first drafts of routine tenant correspondence.
Evidence and checksRules are arriving in phases: tenancy reform from 1 May 2026, a landlord database rolling out from 15 December 2026 (London landlords register between July and October 2027) and mandatory ombudsman membership expected in 2028. A person approves every message to a tenant. Implementation roadmap GOV.UK, 9 September 2026
Logging and triaging repair reports and photographs, scheduling contractors and tracking each issue to completion.
Evidence and checksTriage is advisory and a qualified contractor inspects. The extension of Awaab's Law to private renting is still subject to consultation, so we follow it rather than assume dates.
Reading Energy Performance Certificates to rank improvement options by cost and likely effect.
Evidence and checksThe government has confirmed that privately rented homes will need to reach EPC C by 1 October 2030, with a £10,000 cost cap (response of 21 January 2026); the regulations are expected in 2027. Works are specified by an assessor. GOV.UK
Tracking official releases and sales data for the neighbourhoods where we own homes.
Evidence and checksPrimary series come first, such as the monthly UK House Price Index; agent indices are shown with their period, for example Coutts' report of an average 168 days to sell in prime London in Q2 2026. Coutts, July 2026
Assembling sale comparables, identifying the likely buyer and preparing accurate particulars.
Evidence and checksThe asking price is set by the directors with agent advice, and every marketing claim is checked against the home itself.
AI output is a draft to be tested, never a conclusion to accept. The wider industry is cautious too: a May 2026 survey of 255 US commercial real estate professionals by First American Data & Analytics and DealGround found 66% use AI weekly or daily, but only 5% trust it enough to inform real deal decisions. First American, 12 May 2026
Legislation, standards and market figures are linked to the sources above and dated. This page describes how we work; it is not investment, legal or tax advice.
Questions about how we work: info@kensingtonhouse.com · +44 (0) 207 183 2125
Explore the interiors, materials and details of the Kensington House portfolio, alongside selected writing from our design archive.
Room-by-room photography brings the design into focus: the relationship between living spaces, the character of a kitchen, and the quieter details of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Explore Sulgrave Road →From the design archive