Big facelift pays off

A Hong Kong investor is reaping the rewards of refurbishing an Edwardian building near Soho.

Cleary House, in Newman Street, above, just north of Oxford Street, has been renovated into 10 two-bedroom flats.

The apartments were launched on to the rental market in April and all properties were let within three months. Now, as a fully let development, it is showing a gross yield of nearly 12 per cent.

Clearly House is a six-storey building and the conversion has been undertaken to a high specification.

The apartments all have a reception room, kitchen/breakfast room, bathroom and cloakroom. The top two floors are arranged as four duplex apartments.

The properties are fully furnished.

Rentals are from GBP375 (HK$4,522) to GBP450 a week for the larger apartments and duplexes.

With the current strong London rental market, John Marshall, of letting agents Bousfield & Marshall, said: 'We have seen a keen interest in these 10 properties.

'Over the past year, there has been an extremely strong rental demand for quality two-bedroom apartments in the right central locations.'