It was a visit to Royal Ascot in June that clinched it for Bobby Flay. For years, the 57-year-old New York-based restaurateur and TV chef has loved visiting London; on his trip to the races this summer, though, he finally resolved to find a more permanent base. “My girlfriend and I were thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have an apartment here? Let’s come back after the summer and do this.’ And we just did.” 

The couple looked at a dozen or so properties in central London before focusing on a trio of two-bedroom apartments in Chelsea, their preferred area. “We felt it had a nice warmth, we liked the attitude of the people, and we’re totally into that kind of style of architecture,” he says. Flay plans to return in a month or so to view again and make an offer, working with agent Vic Chhabria of LREO.  

It’s a timely decision for a dollar-based, all-cash buyer such as Flay. “I’m not a person that looks at a market and says ‘I’m going to try to take advantage of this’ because I understand everything is cyclical, and I want to be a part of the community,” he adds. “But if I can maybe buy an apartment that I really want and it costs me 5 to 10 per cent less? That’s great.”