St John’s Wood is the Prime London location with the most expensive weekly rents in the capital, pipping runner up Knightsbridge and Belgravia to the title.

Ham & High: This four-bedroom flat in a portered mansion block on Circus Road, NW8, is on for £1,700 per week through ChestertonsThis four-bedroom flat in a portered mansion block on Circus Road, NW8, is on for £1,700 per week through Chestertons (Image: Archant)

According to a report by estate agent Chestertons, weekly rentals for a property in St John’s Wood averaged £1,889 per week in Q3 this year, while the report found that gross yields of 4.2 percent were the highest in London.

This is compared to average Prime London rent of £915 per week and an average yield for Prime London of 3.1 pc.

Ben Sloane, director of lettings at Chestertons St John’s Wood, said: “I think the yield figure may be a quirk, but St John’s Wood having the highest rent I don’t see changing.”

Sloane attributes St John’s Wood’s high rents to the area’s reputation as a “no-brainer from an investment point of view”, meaning that there is a far higher proportion – he puts the figure at around 40 pc – of company owners in the area than in almost any other part of London.

Ham & High: Circus Road, NW8, on for £1,700 per week through ChestertonsCircus Road, NW8, on for £1,700 per week through Chestertons (Image: Archant)

“If you compare it to Maida Vale just next door, where I worked for years, I don’t have figures, but I’d say probably 90 pc of landlords are individual landlords there and it’s a very different market.”

This is reflected in average rents of £1,282 per week recorded by the Little Venice office.

He says that this could also contribute to St John’s Wood’s higher yield figure, because an investment landlord can afford longer void periods in order to achieve optimum rents on a property.

All this begs the question of just who it is who can afford these sky high rents.

Ham & High: Circus Road, NW8, on for £1,700 per week through ChestertonsCircus Road, NW8, on for £1,700 per week through Chestertons (Image: Archant)

Sloane says that a high proportion of tenants in the area are employees of large companies with relocation packages and he attributes the neighbourhood’s popularity with high-earning professionals to its Jubilee line station, which means that Canary Wharf is just under 20 minutes away.

“St John’s Wood is definitely the nicest suburb on the Jubilee Line, which makes it so popular with people who work in Canary Wharf.

“There’ve been quite a few new corporate lets coming into the area in recent months too, with companies such as Facebook, Statoil and Google moving into London offices nearby, as well as HSBC and the other Canary Wharf based financial companies being just a short tube trip away, St Johns Wood is usually one of, if not the best suburb for their executive staff in terms of convenience and attraction.”

Ham & High: Circus Road, NW8, on for £1,700 per week through ChestertonsCircus Road, NW8, on for £1,700 per week through Chestertons (Image: Archant)