Activity and spend above £5 million

The £5 million+ market has been surprisingly active, fuelled by needs-based rather than discretionary buyers. After a strong start to 2020, with 88 £5 million+ transactions in the first quarter, turnover across the market as a whole fell back to just 43 in the second quarter as the first lockdown took its toll, before rebounding to 95 sales in the three months to the end of September. For now, prime central London residential values remain around -21% below peak and significantly more for those playing the currency card. We’ll likely have to wait until the back end of 2021 and into 2022 before a stronger recovery in values takes hold.

Prime central London by district

Which districts are experiencing growth? Our Q3 2020 analysis shows prime property price growth on an annual basis, and since the 2014 peak.

Taking a look at buyer demand

When the market reopened in May, top-end activity picked up. London’s recovery began later than its country counterpart, but in the three months to September, we saw a strong rebound in sales for properties over £5 million. This suggests underlying demand for the capital’s most expensive homes.

The absence of international travel

The slower rebound of the prime central London property market has been in no small part due to the constraints of international travel. The data shows passenger numbers into London’s Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in Europe, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. With a fraction of international arrivals, this has meant less competition and more opportunity for those on the ground.

Ultra prime London in comparison with other global cities

With large and dynamic cities tending to remain popular with the global wealthy over long periods of time, we compare London’s ultra prime residential values per square foot with some of the world’s richest cities.

The cost of buying, holding and selling a $10 million property around the globe

A key consideration of investing in residential global markets is not just the price of the property you’re buying, but the associated costs of buying, holding and then selling that property. We compare London to other prime markets around the globe.

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