Even top London properties are proving hard to sell

If you're struggling to sell your modestly priced suburban flat it may be some consolation to know that the owners of expensive Central London pads are doing no better.

The average price of a “prime” (more than £1 million) property in Central London fell by 1.6per cent in July, making a total quarterly fall of 4.7 per cent. Flats are particularly affected, according to Knight Frank. Even more telling are the transaction figures: almost 50 per cent fewer homes were sold in this exclusive sector in July compared with the same month last year.

These figures come as no surprise to Daniel Poole, an interior designer and developer who, with his business partner James Raven, bought a two-bedroom ground-floor flat on a busy road in Bayswater in January for £1.14million and is now struggling to sell it on. And this is in spite of having replaced the Hello! magazine-style fringed pelmets, gilt candelabras and Baroque mirrors with modern fittings and a subdued palette.

The 67-year lease was initially put up for sale with Harrods Estates (020-7409 9007) at £1,999,950, but this was reduced in July to £1.75 million. Poole, like many other frustrated sellers, is also willing to let the flat until the market improves, at £1,800 a week for a long let or £2,500 a week for a short let.

Bayswater, with its peeling stucco guesthouses and bedsits, isn't proper prime London, but it is definitely coming up in the world as a result of its excellent location and high-quality, though neglected, housing stock. “It's good value and right on the park,” Poole says, “a little island between Mayfair and Notting Hill and much more affordable than both. In the 1970s the area was taken over by people from the Middle East but now it's becoming more mixed. I'd say that 50per cent of the hotels that killed the area have been turned back to residential.”

The flat is on Sussex Gardens, a typical Bayswater terrace now plagued by traffic - the epitome of faded grandeur. Poole bought the flat from a minor celebrity, Sharmini Tiruchelvam, who has similarly faded from view. She was a part-Sri Lankan, part-Malaysian It-girl of the 1950s London party scene.

“She was a sort of oriental Barbara Cartland figure,” Poole says. “Very charming and eccentric. She welcomed us through the door and processed straight to her grand piano, where she serenaded us. She seemed to live in a world where people drank champagne all day. She entertained celebrities of the day here - apparently Charlie Chaplin had his 70th birthday party in the flat.”

Today the formerly flamboyant front room still has its original coffered ceiling and cornice, now painted dark grey, and the parquet floor has been stained black. It is filled with odd bits of arty furniture that Poole has collected.

The doors to this room and the second bedroom behind it are decorated with ornate pediments, and there is a quirky porthole window in the hall looking out towards the neighbouring church (which provides secure parking for £130 a month). The round window adds a Play School element, though this is somewhat undermined by the questionable artwork beneath: a display case of naked plastic dolls.

The bathroom has black walls, a tropical rain-effect shower and a TV screen over the sunken bath. The kitchen has been moved into what was the dining room. It has lovely Neo-Classical ceiling mouldings, painted white and gold (though the original blue still shows through), which contrasts with the industrial-style brushed-steel kitchen units.

The master bedroom at the back of the flat, once the kitchen, office and bathroom, is now an Asian spa-style den with dark walls and a floor-level bed with a huge black padded headboard. A panel behind the bed conceals a wet room.

Poole believes that the flat represents “a nice illustration of the difference between '50s style and now”. He needs only to find a buyer who appreciates it. “I'm hoping once the Russians come back from holiday in the South of France they will like it.”