The student accommodation ready for royal tenants

We found a snake living in the garden of our student house in London.

It wasn’t because it wanted a piece of the party action - there wasn’t a lot of that during the final year of university - but rather due to the rear of the property resembling an Amazonian jungle with waist-deep grass. What else was lurking in the undergrowth, we wondered.

With damp in the walls, a carpet that looked like it dated back centuries and a general smell of dirty football boots and sodden rugby kit, it didn’t make for a pleasant abode.

This was a five-bedroom house in the capital, and more than a decade ago, like now, it came at a hefty cost as far as student pads go.

However, for those with pockets far deeper than we had, an opportunity has arisen to live a very different student life.

A 3,540 sq ft townhouse on London’s Park Lane has come on the market - and is said to be the only one of its type on the exquisite street in Mayfair that has its own private front door.

It is being marketed as “student digs for the super-rich’, with interest expected to come primarily from the Middle East.

Valued at £12.5 million (Dh59.5m), it is available to rent from £4,000 per week.

According to the agent Wetherell, most of the properties on Park Lane now serve as student accommodation for the offspring of Middle East families.

“This property will appeal to an ultra-high-net-worth person from the Middle East or Asia, who wants to launch themselves into Mayfair society,” said chief executive Peter Wetherell.

The home, which has been refurbished, comes with three bedrooms, glass floors, a glass roof and a 60ft-high central atrium.

It also has underfloor heating, air conditioning, and a 24-hour concierge service.

Student accomodation costs in the United Kingdom increased by 18 per cent between 2012-13 and 2015-16, The Guardian reported Shelly Asquith, vice-president for welfare at the National Union of Students, as saying.

Students from across the UK were reportedly organising a rent strike as they saw high housing costs as making higher education unaffordable.

Whoever takes the keys to the Park Lane pad probably won’t be too worried about rising rents.

ioxborrow@thenational.ae

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