While period London townhouses are often bursting with vintage charm, they also come with some downsides for modern living. They’re usually tall and skinny, which was fine in the days when they were staffed by five housemaids to do the grunt work, but not so great when you’re schlepping your own groceries and laundry. Some of them have been retrofitted with elevators, but even those rarely have a lift to service each floor. Roof terraces are hit or miss, and you can pretty much forget about on-site parking, let alone the kind of new-fangled wellness features — a gym and pool, say — that so many high-end buyers want nowadays.
This brand-new townhouse, in the new Chelsea Barracks development, delivers on all these points plus more. Best of all, the development is in the SW1 postcode, which is London’s toniest. The townhouse is offered as a fully furnished, turn-key opportunity. Price: $52 million.