The West End of London is an ownership jigsaw dominated by a handful of “great estates” which together own hundreds of acres at the heart of the capital.

It seems hard to imagine a London without the names of Grosvenor, Portman, Howard de Walden, Bedford and Cadogan estates on its map. Their presence at the top of the list of London owners seems as embedded as the British monarchy and, of course, The Crown Estate is also among them, with its extensive holdings across Mayfair and St James’.

But with so much international capital hungry for London real estate, is there now a sound business case for them to sell-up? Together, the great estates own upwards of £20 billion of assets. That level of commitment would’ve once been out of the reach of buyers, but in these times – when a Korean pension fund can pay £1.2 billion for a single London office building – there is no longer such a gulf between a potential seller’s asset base and the pool of willing equity.

The market has not been tested with a major London estate sale, but now, The Langham Estate has been put on the market with a price tag of around £370 million. The 27-asset portfolio is clustered around Oxford Street and stretches east towards Fitzrovia. It was originally part of the land owned by the Earl of Oxford, which was inherited by the family of Lord Howard de Walden, who then sold it in 1925.

For a brief period this Autumn, the £100 million Fitzrovia Estate, to the east of the Langham, was also up for sale and there was the tantalising prospect of one buyer scooping up both. However, it is now believed that Shaftesbury Capital, the seller of the Fitzrovia Estate, is pulling the sale owing to a lack of attractive bids.