For some lucky individuals, serviced apartments are a full-time way of life. These individuals are most spectacularly catered for with London’s One Hyde Park, a residential scheme that offers tenants the legendary service of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in the comfort of their own home. That home is wonderfully located. To the south is Knightsbridge, one of the world’s most glamorous shopping districts, while to the north is the glorious romance and serenity of Hyde Park.

Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and financed by a company owned by the Qatari prime minister, One Hyde Park is meant to be an architectural icon. The design, comprising four separate but linked pavilions, forms a spectacular modern building that fits nicely into its classical context. Its defining material is glass, allowing maximum light permeability with minimum intrusion, giving views of either Hyde Park or Knightsbridge while minimising overlooking between apartments with unique bronze fins.

The scheme is located near two older examples of mansion-block living that act as points of reference. On the park’s east corner is Robert Adam’s Apsley House (1771-78), the former home to the Duke of Wellington. This Grade I-listed block is the ultimate example of opulence and status, and it has for centuries been known as “No. 1, London” – an appellation that likely influenced those who named One Hyde Park. To the west are the Albert Hall Mansions designed by Richard Norman Shaw (1880-87).

These two mansion blocks were instrumental in selling the idea of apartments to the English upper classes, who had always thought of such arrangements with either tenements for poor people or foreign ways of living. Indeed, Shaw went to Paris in 1879 for inspiration, bringing back the city’s ideas about communal areas – grand lobbies and graduated staircases – and blending them in his design with apartments more like a traditional London town house.

One Hyde Park is the most expensive apartment building in the world. The 86-unit complex, which was completed in March 2009, is now almost full. Most of its residents don’t live there full-time, and some don’t have to pay regular property taxes. Its owners comprise a roster of the global super-rich. One Hyde Park has exclusive leisure facilities, including a luxurious spa that incorporates saunas, steam rooms and treatment rooms. There is a gymnasium, private exercise studios, squash courts, a cinema, a golf simulator, an entertainment room, a business suite, private meeting rooms, wine cellars, and a Rolls Royce house-car is also available for residents’ exclusive use.

Serviced apartments are an investment option. Owning one is like having your own hotel room in your investment portfolio. The sector is growing due to demand for residential investment, credit constraints on hotel construction and the squeeze on accommodation supply. However, investors must be clear about why they want to buy. The more the apartment is used as a lifestyle property, the worse it will be as an investment. Leasing it out long-term will be a more profitable option. Those wanting to buy this asset just for capital growth are probably better off just buying a residential asset and hoping the market goes up.