Mayfair is Little Moscow

They used to call the once proud mining community of Ebbw Vale in Wales Little Moscow because of its Left politics and its notoriety as a cockpit of industrial strife.
Today that mantle has been stolen for entirely different reasons by London’s Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Kensington. Little Moscow has moved to Mayfair.

In the swankiest and costliest corners of the capital estate agents are reporting an increasing interest by Russians who want to buy property in Britain’s most costly areas. The market had died down. But now the rich Russians are back in town.

These are the new oligarchs who have a particular fondness for period properties and new swish developments with 24-hour security and such niceties as a concierge service.

It’s estimated that property prices have dropped by nearly 25 per cent in some of the smartest areas. But it is still necessary if the process of looking is to be turned into buying for the sellers to clip asking prices even further. The Russians might be rich – and in many parts of London they are far from popular – but they still like to strike a bargain.

A top estate agent who did not want to be named said: “ It’s still difficult to sell or to rent hugely expensive places in those areas which became super fashionable in the boom times and which today have lost a lot of lustre. But the traditionally finest areas are still the places the rich want to live. They can walk into the West End without having the hassle of tubes or traffic jams and they have the world’s best shops and restaurants and cultural attractions literally on their doorsteps. People trying to sell or rent properties for astronomical prices in the Johnny come Lately nouveau areas must start getting real.”