Madonna is tired of moving up, and it turns out many other Londoners feel the same way. Weary of the narrow, multilevel flats that have been the mainstay of real estate in Britain’s capital city, they’re buying adjacent townhouses, as the Material Girl recently did, and knocking down walls to create large, lateral living spaces that are more loft-like than traditional living spaces.

The singer’s new $12 million, 10-bedroom Georgian townhouse in the Marylebone district — a former private clinic, according to the Daily Mail, and in desperate need of renovation — hasn’t been transformed yet, but speculation is that it will soon unite with her adjacent eight-bedroom townhouse to form another one of the city’s “superflats.”

“The trend of the moment is lateral living, particularly at the top end of the market,” confirms Lucian Cook, director of research at Savills, a British provider of real estate services.

Driven largely by superwealthy Americans, Russians, Europeans, and Chinese, the push to go doublewide in London has increased significantly over the past few years. “When more foreigners moved to London from cities where apartment living is standard — Paris, Milan, or New York, for example — developers started to convert laterally across buildings to cater to those buyers,” says Phil Spencer, CEO of the London property search agency Garrington and a Sunday Times columnist.

Living Sideways

The term “lateral living” makes the concept seem more complex than it actually is. When looking lateral, think horizontal: wide, generous spaces with ample room to roam. Lofts are lateral, as are most apartments. If there are stairs, then the space isn’t considered lateral. A one-story house is lateral, but in London, these are virtually impossible to find. So the idea is to mimic rural spaciousness in an urban environment by expanding out, instead of up.

Cook says there are a few key reasons why people choose to live laterally, anywhere in the world. “There’s a great impression of size. [Lateral spaces] just feel bigger and are that much grander. There’s no wastage of the fourth-floor area (common to European townhomes) because of staircases. You don’t have these dead areas in the house.”

In London, townhomes were constructed to reflect the way that people lived in a rigid, Victorian class-conscious society. “The maids lived on the top floor, and the kitchen was on the ground floor,” says Cook. “The first-floor space was the entertaining space, with a high ceiling.”

Today’s lateral spaces offer better circulation for our post-Victorian gatherings. “There are bigger open areas, and it’s easier to have a large party because people can gather on one floor easily,” says Cook. “You don’t have to go down the stairs to the kitchen, or up to the bathroom.”

Nick Candy, who co-owns Candy & Candy, a high-profile London developer, with his brother, Christian, says their clients are paying for much more than a stairless existence. “[They] want the freedom of living over lateral space, benefiting from additional light, the distribution of space, added security, and often, higher ceilings,” he explains.

By “added security,” he’s referring to several features of the company’s One Hyde Park development, currently under construction: direct elevator access from the garage to the apartment, iris scanners, panic rooms, and bulletproof closed-circuit cameras. There’s 24-hour room service as well.

In markets such as Paris, Chicago, and New York, living laterally is the norm. In Manhattan, in addition to a wealth of apartments, supersized lateral spaces — especially lofts — are easy to find. “Downtown (Manhattan) was built for industrial purposes, which spoke to the fact that it was a port city. So people did all kinds of things with warehouses, creating lofts and beautiful commercial spaces for creative professions — architects and graphic designers — and we have a magnificent supply of industrial buildings with thick walls and high ceilings,” says Wendy Maitland, managing director of the I.D. Marketing Group at Brown Harris Stevens.

After renting her 700-square-foot apartment in New York City’s Flatiron district for four years, Vicki Musso decided to buy it — by then, she’d fallen in love with its almost floor-to-ceiling windows and beautiful southern and eastern light. That was in 1990. In 2005, she bought the place next door — a 600-square-foot apartment that she renovated and now rents. But she dreams of knocking down the walls and creating a superflat, with a 22-foot-wide living room, a larger master bathroom, an updated kitchen, and an additional bedroom for guests. “Instead of having cocktails here before running out to dinner, I’ll be able to have dinner parties instead. It’ll enhance my lifestyle,” she says.

Breaking the Barriers

As simple as it sounds to join two small places to make one larger space, it isn’t always an option. London townhomes are historically protected, and major renovations require local government approval. Many properties can’t be tampered with at all, and even with an OK, the process is lengthy, difficult, and expensive.

That’s part of the reason lateral spaces are the most desirable, and the most difficult to find. There’s a limited amount of space in central London anyway, and teardowns are rare. “It’s almost impossible to build new buildings,” sighs Ed Mead of Douglas & Gordon, the largest independent estate agent in southwest London.

The result is an astronomical increase in prices, in an already inflated market. According to Cook at Savills, over the past two years, the average price of real estate in central London has risen 27 percent, whereas in the $10 million–plus, mostly lateral, bracket, prices have increased 45 percent. (Even Madonna paid nearly twice what the property had been listed for the previous year).

James Simpson, a partner at Knight Frank in London, says that on average, lateral spaces go for about 30 percent more than traditional townhouses, up to $8,000 per square foot. Others estimate the value of a lateral flat at 50 percent higher than the same-size regular flat; if it’s newly built as a lateral flat, it could be 100 percent higher. Candy & Candy will ask $100 million apiece for 80 apartments overlooking Hyde Park in Knightsbridge when they open in 2010.

“The ironic thing is the more money it costs, the more desirable it is, because it’s more exclusive,” says Simpson. “There isn’t an end in sight.”

— Ellise Pierce

Lucian Cook of Savills says there are five primary reasons people choose to live laterally:

1

There’s a great impression of size in lateral spaces. They just feel bigger and grander.

2

There’s no wastage of upper floors. You don’t have dead areas in the house because of steep staircases.

3

There’s a greater ease of circulation, particularly when it comes to entertaining. There are bigger open areas, and it’s easier to have a large party because people can gather on one floor easily. You don’t have to go down to the kitchen, or up to the bathroom.

4

Generally, lateral spaces provide better security. And overseas buyers want lock-up-and-leave simplicity. They like having in-house porterage security. And maintenance is carried out on a hassle-free basis.

5

 If the flats are in a modern block, and they’re purpose-built, they’re often appealing compared with other city dwellings because of ceiling height and room size. If it’s a big lateral space, there’s more flexibility.

— E.P.