A family from Riyadh or Dubai arriving in London with a budget and a list of districts usually has not decided the thing that decides everything else: a house or a flat. The Gulf instinct is the house, because that is what a family lives in at home. In London most prime districts are flats, a house costs more to run and is harder to leave empty, and a portered flat is the easier asset for an owner abroad.
Market notes
Houses or flats? What a Gulf family should buy in London, on cost, running, letting, security and use
Quick answer: should a Gulf family buy a house or flat in London?
A Gulf family that will use a London property for a few months a year should buy a lateral flat in a portered block; a family living in London for the school years, with staff to run it, can buy a freehold house. An investor should buy a flat, always. A £5,000,000 house in Kensington costs £35,000 to £140,000 a year to run against £25,000 to £55,000 for a flat of the same value, and yields 2 to 3 per cent against 3 to 4. The catch is the empty house: the insurer wants inspections every seven to fourteen days.
For a family that will use the property for a few months a year and leave it otherwise: a lateral flat in a portered block, freehold-share or long-lease, in a district the family already knows. For a family that will live in London for the school years, or that has the staff and the means to run a house from abroad: a freehold house with a garden in Kensington, St John’s Wood, Hampstead or the south-west. For an investor: a flat, always.
Buying a London house or flat: what the purchase involves
What the purchase involves for each, side by side:
House against flat on purchase: tenure, survey and legal work
| On purchase | House | Flat |
|---|---|---|
| Tenure | Freehold, almost always | Leasehold, or share of freehold; the lease is the asset |
| Stamp duty | Same rates | Same rates |
| Survey | Level 3, £1,500 to £3,000, and worth every pound | Level 2 plus building-safety enquiries, £900 to £1,500 |
| Legal | Simpler: no lease, no managing agent | The lease, the service charge accounts, the building safety file, the freeholder’s consents |
| What can go wrong | Structure, roof, drains, subsidence, basements dug without consent | Short lease, rising service charge, cladding, a freeholder who does not maintain |
Source: GOV.UK leasehold property guidance; firm’s indicative survey costs, October 2026.
A house at £5,000,000 in Kensington is bought for about the same per square foot as a good flat in the same street; the premium is for the garden and the freehold, and it is real. Our guide on leasehold or freehold for an overseas buyer explains what the lease is and what to check; our guide on due diligence from abroad the survey.
Annual running costs of a £5,000,000 London house and flat
The indicative annual running costs for a £5,000,000 house and a £5,000,000 flat:
Annual running cost, £5 million house against flat
| Each year | £5,000,000 house, Kensington | £5,000,000 lateral flat, portered block |
|---|---|---|
| Service charge and ground rent | nil | £15,000 to £40,000 |
| Buildings insurance | £3,000 to £6,000, the owner’s | within the service charge |
| Maintenance and repairs | £10,000 to £30,000, and the owner arranges it | small; the block does the fabric |
| Council tax, Band H, with the second-home premium | £6,700 (Kensington and Chelsea) | £6,700 |
| Staff, gardener, security | £10,000 to £50,000 if the house is kept ready | the porter, within the service charge |
| Utilities while empty | £3,000 to £6,000 | £1,500 to £3,000 |
| Indicative total | £35,000 to £140,000 | £25,000 to £55,000 |
Source: GOV.UK council tax premiums on second homes; firm’s indicative running costs, October 2026.
The flat’s service charge looks like the large number and is the smaller one once the house’s maintenance and staff are counted. Our guide on service charges, ground rent and building safety and our guide on the running cost of a second home used in summer set out the lines.
Letting a London house or flat: tenants, yields and upkeep
A flat lets to a corporate, diplomatic or international tenant for three to five years with the porter handling the building and the agent the tenancy; a house lets to a family at a higher rent but with a thinner tenant pool, more maintenance in the tenancy, and a garden the tenant will not keep as the owner would. Gross yields: 3 to 4 per cent on the flat, 2 to 3 on the house.
Renters’ Rights Act: no taking a let property back for summer
Under the Renters’ Rights Act neither can be taken back for the summer, as our guide on the Act explains, so the letting decision is a full decision. Our guide on letting and managing from the Gulf covers the agent.
Leaving a London house or flat empty: insurance and inspections
The point most families miss. A flat in a portered block stands empty for nine months with the porter walking past the door twice a day, the heating on frost setting, the post collected, and the insurer content; a house stands empty with its pipes, its roof, its garden, its alarm and its reputation on the street, and the insurer requires inspections every seven to fourteen days, a drained system or heating left on, and a premium for the unoccupancy clause, as our guide on insurance for an overseas owner explains.
A house needs a housekeeper or a managing firm; a flat needs the porter. For an owner abroad this is the strongest argument for the flat, and it is why the firm’s clients who own houses nearly all have staff.
Altering or extending a London house or flat: planning and consent
A freehold house can be altered, extended and dug, subject to planning, listing and the conservation area; in Kensington and Chelsea that means one basement storey under half the garden and nothing on the front, in Westminster and Camden similar, and in Hampstead a little more. A flat can be altered inside with the freeholder’s consent and not at all outside. A family that intends to rebuild should buy a house, buy it with a surveyor’s and an architect’s view of what consent is realistic, and expect two years; a family that wants the space it sees should buy a flat and keep its money.
Selling a London house or flat: buyers and time to sell
Houses in the prime districts are scarce and sell to a small pool of buyers at a price that is set by the last comparable sale on the street; they take longer to sell and the buyer is nearly always a family. Flats sell to a deeper pool, investors and families, and a good flat in a known block has a buyer in any year.
Liquidity against holding value: selling a London house or flat
For a family that may need to sell at a particular time, the flat is the more liquid asset; for a family that will hold for a generation, the house has held value at least as well. Our guide on selling UK property as a non-resident covers the tax on either.
Family use of a London house or flat: weeks of use
A house is the family’s own: the garden for the children, the staff quarters, the privacy, the sense of a London home that a flat, however large, does not give some families. A flat is the family’s convenience: arrive, the porter has the keys, the heating is on, leave. The honest question is how many weeks a year the family will be there, and who will be in London when they are not; the answers decide the house or the flat more reliably than the budget does.
House or flat in London: our view by budget
Up to £2,000,000: a flat, in a portered block, in the district the family knows. £2,000,000 to £5,000,000: a flat unless the family will be in London for the school years, in which case a house in St John’s Wood, Hampstead or the south-west where the budget buys a garden. Above £5,000,000: either, decided by weeks of use and by staff; a house in Kensington or St John’s Wood with a housekeeper, or a lateral flat on a Cadogan or Grosvenor square. For an investor at any budget, a flat. The firm will say which, after the first conversation, and has rarely changed its answer after the search.
Sources: Leasehold property (GOV.UK) · Council tax premiums on second homes and empty homes (GOV.UK) · RBKC basements planning policy Figures verified 14 October 2026.
Frequently Asked
Questions about houses or flats in London
It has held value as well or better in the prime districts over twenty years and yields less; it is a better store of value and a worse income. For most Gulf families it is a home decision, not an investment one.
With a housekeeper or a managing firm, an insurer who knows, and the council tax premium paid, yes. Without those three, no; the firm has seen what nine months do to an unwatched house.
It avoids the charge and takes on the cost; the roof, the drains and the garden are the owner’s, and a house costs more to run than a flat of the same value once staff are counted.
An indicative £35,000 to £140,000 a year: buildings insurance of £3,000 to £6,000, maintenance and repairs of £10,000 to £30,000, staff, gardener and security of £10,000 to £50,000 if the house is kept ready, utilities while empty of £3,000 to £6,000, and Band H council tax with the second-home premium at £6,700. A £5,000,000 lateral flat in a portered block runs £25,000 to £55,000.
On a £5,000,000 lateral flat in a portered block, £15,000 to £40,000 a year in service charge and ground rent, which covers the buildings insurance, the fabric of the block and the porter. It looks like the large number and is the smaller one once the house’s maintenance and staff are counted.
The flat: gross yields of 3 to 4 per cent against 2 to 3 per cent on a house. A flat lets to a corporate, diplomatic or international tenant for three to five years; a house lets to a family at a higher rent but with a thinner tenant pool and more maintenance in the tenancy. For an investor at any budget, the firm says a flat.
A house needs a Level 3 survey at £1,500 to £3,000, worth every pound against structure, roof, drains, subsidence and basements dug without consent. A flat needs a Level 2 survey plus building-safety enquiries at £900 to £1,500, with the lease, the service charge accounts and the building safety file checked by the solicitor.
Subject to planning, listing and the conservation area. In Kensington and Chelsea that means one basement storey under half the garden and nothing on the front; Westminster and Camden are similar, Hampstead allows a little more. A flat can be altered inside with the freeholder’s consent and not at all outside. A rebuild takes about two years.
The flat. Houses in the prime districts sell to a small pool of buyers, nearly always families, at a price set by the last comparable sale on the street, and take longer. A good flat in a known block has a buyer in any year. For a family that may need to sell at a particular time, the flat is the more liquid asset.
Between £2,000,000 and £5,000,000 the firm’s view is a flat, unless the family will be in London for the school years. In that case a house in St John’s Wood, Hampstead or the south-west, where the budget buys a garden. Up to £2,000,000, a flat in a portered block in the district the family knows.
