The five bedroom flat is one of only a tiny handful of homes at One Hyde Park – the world’s most expensive residential block –  to have come onto the lettings market since it was completed three years ago.

The £195,000 monthly rent on the Candy brothers interior designed property is enough to buy a studio outright in many parts of London, while the annual £2.34 million bill would pay for a substantial family home in areas such as Battersea or Chiswick.

The weekly rent is £45,000, about one and a half times the median London salary.

The particulars describe it as a “truly exceptional apartment” suitable for “entertaining on a grand scale” with sweeping views over Hyde Park and the Serpentine on one side and south towards Westminster on the other.

Simon Price, head of super prime lettings at agent Savills, which is handling the One Hyde Park property, said there had already been one offer and interest from several other potential tenants. He said: ”It is the outstanding building of its type in London, there is nothing to match it yet.”

The 9307 sq ft flat – about six times the size of a typical London house – has a 50 metre long hallway stretching almost its entire length, five reception rooms, six bathrooms and access to wine cellars and two parking spaces.

The master bedroom has “his” and “hers” bathrooms and dressing rooms and a south facing balcony terrace. The bathrooms have marble basins, huge walk-in “rain showers” with body jets and freestanding baths.

A family kitchen is fitted with Bulthaup units and Gaggenau appliances and there is also a separate “prep kitchen.” A large dining room can seat ten and there is also a media room, study and “winter salon.”

It comes shortly after a Georgian mansion on Audley Square in Mayfair was offered for rent for £15,000 a week.

It is not known why the owner has decided to rent out the apartment but Land Registry records reveal it was sold to a St Vincent and Grenadines registered offshore vehicle called Motion Incorporation for £56.265 million in February 2011 not long after the building was finished.

The apartment is unusual because it is available on a longer term let. Many of the biggest homes in London’s most exclusive areas are available only on short lets and compete with the biggest “Royal” and “Presidential” suites at the top five star hotels.

A huge six bedroom penthouse flat in a separate block in Knightsbridge is currently being offered for £50,000 a week for a short let or £25,000 for a long let. It was last occupied by a Middle East royal family.

Property experts said the rarified top end of London’s rental sector is being “Candified” in the same way that the “for sale” market was a few years ago.

Mayfair estate agent Peter Wetherell said: ”Even three years ago monthly rents of £60,000 to £80,000 were unusual, now they are becoming more frequent. A rent of £200,000 per month would have been unheard of, yet now a 5 bedroom penthouse in One Hyde Park can command such stratospheric rental values.

“The owners of these super-prime properties, rich Gulf Royals, wealthy African oil and gas traders and Asian billionaires have realised that these properties are often sitting empty for most of the year and are only used infrequently. So they hve now decided to turn them into “cash cows” by releasing them onto the rental market to regenerate income.

“The tenants are the people next in line down the super-rich food chain, the wealthy young overseas Prince, who are often students in London, New York traders on secondment to London, visting rock stars and Hollywood film stars all wanting an uber glam short-stay pad whilst they are in London.”

But Mr Price said there remained a shortage of supply at the top end because many owners preferred to keep their “trophy” London properties empty rather than sully them by renting them out.

He said: ”You lose 10 to 15 per cent of the value if you rent it out because it becomes ‘second hand goods.’ If you leave it empty and fully dressed you can watch it gain five per cent a year. It is like putting fine wine down for ten years and let it gather dust and not touch it.”