Transcription
Today I'm critiquing this penthouse in central London and then I'm going to give it an Arvin score at the end of the video. So if you ever decide to buy a penthouse, you won't make the same mistakes. I'm Arvin Hadad. I'm the how to buy a mansion guy. Let's watch this video together.
Most penthouses sell you on just a view. But today we're not touring just any penthouse. I've seen a lot of luxury homes over the years, but this one feels different. Almost like it has something to say, and the features it packs. Well, let's just say it makes this place nothing short of iconic.
Okay, location Marylebone. And if you're American, Marylebone. Okay, get it together. Central London, right next to Mayfair. It's not as touristic. It's got a more neighborhood charm. If you really want to be in central London without all that tourists and shops and everything, you want to have more of a neighborhoody feel, great neighborhood to stay at.
>> And it all starts right here in what they call the breezeway. Now, this is not something you see often, and it's a key feature of this development.
>> He's right, and let me explain why. So, they've decided to put the central area of the building open, both for breezeway, as he calls it, and also have natural light coming in. And it gives the added benefit of having some of the units or a lot of the units that are not the penthouse at the ends to look inside and get more natural light coming in. But in practicality, as you can see, everyone's got their blinds down. Okay? They said no to light and said, "Please privacy." Okay? They don't want anyone looking into their property when they're going to their unit. They don't have any internal corridors. Instead, what they have is this system of breezeways here in this five-story courtyard. And it's open, it's airy, there's a lot of plants around and a water feature which gives it this unique almost rainforest atmosphere. And the second you step into this space, I can speak personally. It lets you know that you're somewhere special. It's truly amazing. This is actually really good, but it comes with a negative. Let me explain. First, the arrival experience is important. The fact that you're in central London and you have this kind of an oasis-ish area in the middle of the building where you kind of can let loose and kind of set the story and the tone. It's kind of like a private driveway for a mansion. But it comes with a big negative as the elevators are not absolutely central to it. So you got to be doing a lot of walking here again passing by a lot of different windows. It's not like you come up the elevator, you got like, you know, four doors to choose from and then you're out. You're going to meet your neighbors here.
So, this building has a 24-hour concierge. >> That's it. This is like in the corner. That's it. It's not impressive whatsoever.
>> The apartment comes with two parking spaces and a 999-year lease. And there's also a wraparound terrace and some incredible features we're going to see later on.
Okay. And here we are inside the apartment. The main door leads us into the living room. And we're now in a more informal reception room space. We have a formal reception which I want to show you in a little bit. Now before we go any further, one of the most important things I have to point out is that this apartment is being sold with a first edition collection of Christina Rosetti's poems. Now she was a prolific poet here in Great Britain. How is that the most important? Look, I like poetry, but this has nothing to do with the unit. May I get a discount? Like, love it all, you know, but can you go instead of 27 million pounds to 25? You can keep the poems yourself. But it is actually the formal living space, he said it's the informal space. This is the formal living room. It's central to the entrance, so you get the wow factor coming in. The chandelier is kind of blocking your view, whatever, but it's it's fine. This is a good space. You come in, this is where you meet and greet your formal guests in your penthouse. One of the most important of her time, and she spent most of her life living here in Marylebone. So I guess this penthouse in a sense is almost like a love letter to the buyer, which is pretty cool. And just being in this space overlooking the chimney tops here. Maybe you should have given a William Blake, you know, chimney sweeper poet instead, cuz all I see is chimneys. I've never thought about like have treetop views. This is chimney top views. Never seen it. Unique.
Now, moving back into the space, you have your chevron hardwood floors and then just the choice of furniture is spectacular. And I can't miss this 1930s almost Art Deco style ceiling lamp. Okay, so that's this informal reception room space. And I guess it leads me to this question, and that's can a home this expensive still have meaning?
>> What do you mean it's a home, man? Why you trying to make it complicated? At first glance, it's hard to tell if a place this expensive can really mean something. You almost have to slow down, like you're trying to catch a feeling rather than just take it in. The more I look, the calmer it feels. Then I start noticing. Every detail here is deliberate. The way the light moves through the space, the quiet materials, the textures. It's luxury that doesn't need to shout. It's confident, elegant, and at peace with itself. That's why we need to head over and see the formal living room area.
Dude, this is the family living area. This is not your formal living space. That's a TV room. Okay, that was the formal. Okay, so there are two living areas next to each other. You got the formal living space up front, right, for your guests, and this is your family living space where you watch TV with your kids.
Now, to give you some details on the apartment, you have three bedrooms, three bathrooms with 3,600 square feet of internal space and a 1,400 square foot wraparound terrace. Now, the ceiling height in here is 9 feet high, which is just under three meters. Now, bear in mind, I am 6'4. Calm down, bro. You're not auditioning for the next Bachelor here. Okay, first of all, is it, you know, 9 feet tall from here or from here? The air vent or over here? Cuz there's a solid foot difference right there. And in either case, neither is enough for a penthouse unit. In fact, this is not the real penthouse, like the top top floor. It's the one right below it. So, I guess they couldn't go all the way up as much as they wanted to. But that's not even the biggest problem over here. My biggest problem is that you have to go across your formal living space to get to your family room. And then you have a dining table over here. But once you get here, it's really cool because it's a corner area. So, you have a wider balcony area. You have, you know, a corner moment over here. But it's so much better than your formal living area. You got two spaces competing with each other right next to each other. Really makes you only use one of them. The other one doesn't come to use.
Here in the dining room area, you have seating for eight at this table. So, a great amount of space, good for hosting. And you also get this glass-blown chandelier hanging, which just illuminates the space. Now, one thing I can't miss is this curved glass that you get, which looks out onto the terrace and the chimney tops here in Marylebone. It's an amazing feature and really captures your eye the second you walk into the penthouse. This is really cool and I really, really like it. Let me explain why. Typically, you will either have a column there, right, or a wall crossing or just a weird moment as to having this round element, right, which actually matches the curves of this upper area of the two-story penthouse area. It's really cool and it makes it a picture window and a focal point of the house and obviously brings a lot of natural light, which you need because you're northwest facing and that's never good.
Stepping back off the dining room area, if you just look behind me, you do get a sense of the scale of the lateral space in this penthouse. And I think that's one of the most unique things about this penthouse is the lateral space. And it's very rare to get that here in London.
>> He's absolutely right. And you should always allocate a premium for a lateral space over a two-story, three-story penthouse or a townhouse. And I will explain why. This becomes even more important in the upper price points because it really opens up your buyer pool when you try to sell the property. For example, the buyer for this property could very much so come from a very wealthy individual whose their kids have moved out of their house. They lived in a much bigger single-family home in London and they want to get to central London to have the cute shops downstairs and all these street areas around it, but they don't want to fall down the stairs and break their hip and spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair. Okay? And that guy who just sold his massive manor in, you know, suburbs of London, it comes with a really, really good budget. And this is probably their last house they're ever going to live in, and they're not going to care to overpay for their property to make sure they get exactly what they want.
Now, let's move over to the kitchen. Okay, and here we are in the kitchen and it has pretty much everything you could ask for. Starting with this breakfast nook, informal dining area here. Fantastic addition. Opposite this you get a seating area which you can relax from and then you also get access to the terrace where you have additional seating and you can enjoy those views over Marylebone. So it's a great start so far.
Now one key thing I didn't point out is that you actually have pocket doors which separates the kitchen from the informal reception area. There's a really good reason for it because this penthouse could technically be two units. That's two separate entrances. This is brand new. So, I think they wanted to keep that option for you or they decided at some point during the design phase to turn this into a penthouse for whatever reason. You have two entrances and you can't separate these two spaces from this wall over here and have two independent units away from each other.
Now, behind me, we have the main portion of the kitchen here. It has this massive almost statement island in the center. So much space to prepare food from. Here you have your built-in induction hob and then some bar seating here. Now just behind it we have your Gaggenau fridge and freezer and then sliding down you get your Miele appliances also.
Now one of the key details is that you have a chef's kitchen which is separate from this and that's fantastic because you can prepare food from the chef's kitchen and then just keep this space for entertaining and hosting guests. What a horrible idea. You have this massive kitchen. You didn't need a chef's kitchen. You needed an office. You're 3,600 square feet and you have three bedrooms. That in itself is questionable. You don't even have an office. Really, really bad decision. And this is exactly how I would save you money if you join the inner circle. Let me explain. Central London, best restaurants you can imagine. Okay. And then how often are you going to be having a chef over to your property? How often? Maybe three times a year. Four, once every season. Okay. And in typically in the circles I've hung out with, you invite a chef you're interested to talk to, not shove them in a freaking closet called the chef's kitchen. That's disrespectful to the chef you're inviting. They'd never come to your house again. Horrible idea. Horrible, horrible idea. Really just trying to copy others because everyone is hearing about chef's kitchen. Chef's kitchen. Oh, I want one. I want one. This kitchen was massive. This is where the chef should cook, not in the freaking closet.
Here. Everything has space. Nothing's shouting over anything else. The materials, the Maxalto pieces, the soft lighting. It all feels like someone knew exactly when to stop.
>> They should have stopped right here because I don't know what this couch is looking out. I like the fact that they've thought about allocating a seating arrangement in the kitchen so you keep the energy, the family in this area over here. But I do have a better fix. And see if you can spot it as I show you guys the layout right now. See if you can figure out what would have been a slightly better arrangement to improve this layout. Overall, the layout is not bad, but it could have been better.
Okay, one thing that I like about this apartment is that all the bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms. Stepping through to this bedroom, you have your walkthrough wardrobe here with plenty of wardrobe space. And then here into the main portion of the bedroom. It's a generous amount of space.
>> No, it's not. This is not generous at all. This is pretty small. But again, this is like your third bedroom. So, I'm pretty happy with the closet space. The bathroom was really small, but overall, not bad for a third bedroom.
Now, just around here, we have the second bedroom. And here we are in the second bedroom. To start off with, you have the en-suite bathroom, which is exactly the same as the first bedroom we've seen. So, you get those stone finishes and the walk-in shower. Now, this bedroom is slightly bigger than the first bedroom that we just saw because it doesn't have a walk-in closet, but overall, not bad. You got one with walk-in closet, one without it. Acceptable for, you know, secondary bedrooms. I'm fine with it. You get your built-in wardrobes, a nice bed setup, which is also slightly bigger, and then you also get access to the terrace.
Okay, now let's go check out the primary bedroom suite. And here we are in the primary bedroom suite. Now, immediately coming down this long hallway, you know we're somewhere special because we're in the closet too. I can't believe it. £27 million central London and we got a hallway closet for the primary bedroom. This is criminal. You're just killing the buyer pool over here. Killing it. Completely killing it. Who would want their wife to be getting ready by the front door of their primary bedroom? What a horrible mistake.
Now, if I was consulting on this unit, this is not just how I would have fixed this problem, but also the problem of having the family room farther away from the kitchen and having two living spaces next to each other. The primary bedroom should have certainly been all the way on the other side where the family room was. Why? It's essential in a penthouse when you don't have backyard areas to escape. They're kind of confined, like it's a big commitment to leave the door and go downstairs and get into the streets to have separation between primary bedrooms and the kids' bedrooms, essential or guest bedrooms. And then this way, by allocating this space to the family room, you still had that corner moment just like you did on the other side for the family room. You had the kitchen in the middle, and then you had the formal living space from the front entrance, and then you had the primary suite all the way at the end. In that arrangement, I really believe all the spaces would have got used significantly more. In this setup, I would rarely expect the formal living space or even to some degree the family room would get used because of how far away it is, and most people would tend to stay around the kitchen and then you paid for the square footage and you didn't use it.
You have your built-in wardrobes here. And then swinging around, I want to start off with the en-suite bathroom which is through this pocket door. It's massive in here. You have your bathtub, a double vanity, and your walk-in shower all layered in this amazing stonework. Okay, all the bathrooms are the same. I don't mind it. The fact that one of the other bedrooms didn't have a bathtub, again, you're alienating, you know, families with smaller kids, and that's not ideal.
We have the main portion of the bedroom. You have this king-size bed here, massive headrest, and tons of wall space for artwork. Just in front of the bed, you got this lounge chair, which is fantastic, and then a desk setup here. Now, one of the key features is this curved glass, which just frames Marylebone perfectly. And just what a way to end this penthouse, but most importantly, this bedroom.
Okay, let's finally go check out the terrace. Okay, and here we are. Finally, on the terrace. We have 1,400 square feet on this terrace. And there's so much space up here. And you know, this might be my favorite part of this penthouse. You get a north, south, and west aspect. So, you're going to get fantastic light throughout the day. Okay, 1,400 square feet of terrace space. Most of it is a hallway going from one side to the other. Really like the seating arrangement is the two corners. I'm grateful. Again, that's not bad for, you know, central London. And the fact that all the rooms open up to this balcony is also a plus, both for light and just getting out and getting some fresh air. All good, but I wouldn't say it's impressive. And northwest facing exposure is never good. I mean, it's almost as bad as being directly north. And a lot of the square footage is north facing. I mean, I could easily see myself hosting friends and family on this terrace. I mean, entertaining here would be amazing. It would actually be perfect. And it makes me think, you know, does having everything perfect make you feel closer to people or does it make you feel more alone?
>> Bro, I think your life coach is with you. Where are you trying to go with these questions?
>> What surprised me is how connected this place actually feels. From the moment I stepped inside, you can tell they didn't want this penthouse to stand apart from Marylebone. They wanted it woven into it. There aren't endless private amenities, and that's intentional. It nudges you towards the cafes, the galleries, the streets that make this neighborhood special. It reminded me that real architectural legacy isn't about perfection or price. It's about intention, community, and creating something that outlives the people who get to call it home.
So, wait a minute. You're arguing you don't have the amenities in the building like no gym, no sauna, you know, no yoga room, no kids' area, none of that stuff because you want to be not perfect so you can go hang out with people who don't have as much money as you do so you won't feel alone. What kind of a freaking twisted argument is that, man? Come on. Did you find that on ChatGPT? I've had enough of this crap. Let's give it an Arvin score.
Location, I like it. I actually would really consider if I was wanted to be in central London, be a little bit away from it, not completely into it. So, I could have a neighborhood feel and I like the name Marylebone or Marylebone if you're American. I'm going to give it an 8.5.
Amenities, you're getting it too. This building ain't got you don't have a gym, pool, nothing. Okay, you got two spaces and a concierge in the corner.
Views. Look, BT Tower is not a view. It's not a focal point. It's a nuisance. Okay. And the rest is pretty much chimneys. It's the first time I'm rating chimneys. I like the fact that it's panoramic. Like, you get views from a lot of different angles. I'm going to give it a 4.5.
Unit orientation, you're northwest facing. I'm going to give it a 6.5.
Layout. Look, you do have the wow factor. You have a lot of indoor-outdoor flow all on one level. These are all really positive. It's really a seven, but it could have been more like an eight or a nine. And they just didn't think it out all the way through.
Architectural style. Look, it's not really ugly, but I would say it's kind of weird because it looks like three buildings next to each other cuz they're different colors. Different part of the building are different colors. And then it has a mutual hat on like the top two levels, right? It's it's a little weird if you ask me. It doesn't look horrible though. I'm going to give it a five.
Privacy. Look, it's a concierge building. You do get some units looking into your unit, but overall it's not bad. I'm going to give it a seven.
HOA. I couldn't find any lawsuits or defects. I believe they even have set up a fund or something for future defects. Uh, you should look into it yourself. Check with your lawyers. I'm going to give it another seven.
Finishes. Look, it wasn't bespoke, but it was well curated. I think they kept the palette very warm and also neutral to keep the demographics. And for that reason, I'm going to give him a seven.
Scale and volume. Look, beside the ceiling heights, which was 8 or 9 depending if you had an air vent or not, overall the dimensions of the room, the length and the width were very proportional, especially the kitchen, formal and the family room. I really liked it. And none of the bedrooms were like extremely small, which is pretty common, and it happens in the uh, in London and Europe all the time. So, overall, again, above average. I'm going to give it a seven.
Now, this is the Arvin score, and this is Mark Wahlberg's house in Florida. Interesting review. Check it out if you haven't seen it and I will see you guys in the next video. Take care.