REVVING UP

We all have dreams. Some wish for media stardom, others to become captains of industry – others still just want to make it big in the glamorous world of property research. But as much as our aspirations, it is the objects we choose to surround ourselves with that help shape the way we are perceived.

In the 1980s, Porsche ran an advert for their iconic 911 model with the strapline: “Honestly now, did you spend your youth dreaming about someday owning a Nissan or Mitsubishi?” This isn’t to disparage more modestly priced brands – to quote Raymond Chandler, we are talking about “the stuff that dreams are made of.” And, the main appeal of this advert lies in the word “someday” – how long are you willing to put off your dream purchase and to what extent are you willing to compromise on other things? “Someday”, after all, may never come.
 
So, with increased pressures on housing affordability and the cost of living, we explore the relationship between two of the more commonly held trophy assets – the home and super-luxe cars.

POLE POSITION

We examined data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), and focused on classic prestige brands, including Aston Martin, Bentley, and Rolls Royce (collectively representing ‘British Elegance’), alongside the ‘Super Car Performance’ makes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and McLaren. Of course, we could also not ignore the behemoth that is Porsche, which has accounted for a whopping 74% of private luxury car registrations over the last 5 years to the end of 2023.

In that time, there were just under 105,000 private and corporate registrations of super-luxe brands across Great Britain. To put this figure in its proper context, there were around 131,900 house purchases over £1m over the same period, so luxury car ownership represents a substantial proportion of these transactions. Indeed, focusing on private ownership to make the comparison with house purchases fair, there were 19 super-luxe car registrations overall for every 1,000 home sales (across all price bands) over this period. This increases to 137 registrations for every 1,000 transactions in areas where the average house price was over £1m. In other words, 7.3% of super-luxe registrations took place within the top 1% percent house price banding in Great Britain.

HIGH VELOCITY

So at first glance, it would seem that ownership of these vehicles is weighted towards a relatively rarified level of property value. Similarly, 37% of super-luxe car registrations took place either in London or across the South East, with a heavy concentration around the capital’s commuter belt, in a region with relatively high house prices. London overall saw 35 super-luxe registrations for every 1,000 home sales, while the South East captured 26 per 1,000 sales. By contrast, the South West of England only had 13 registrations per 1,000 home sales, while Wales had 11. To illustrate this dynamic more starkly, there were 7% more superluxe car registrations in absolute terms in the London boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea than across the entire country of Wales.

But digging deeper, the story is more nuanced than a simplistic narrative of London and the South East versus the other regions. If we expand the scope to the 23% of the country where house prices are £400,000 or more, 49% of super-luxe car registrations occur at this level, which points to a much wider distribution than first meets the eye. And indeed, the data does reveal a great deal of variation at a more local level.

BURNING RUBBER

If we drill down to borough level and continue with the metric of super-luxe vehicle registrations per 1,000 home sales, the story is fairly London-centric. 5 of the top ten most prominent local authorities were located in the capital with the rest sitting comfortably within the commuter belt. The top two boroughs were the previously mentioned Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, both exhibiting markedly higher registration rates and average house prices than other local authorities – Kensington and Chelsea had a huge 182 registrations per 1,000 house sales, an average house price of £2,169,970, and had the highest concentration of Porsche and Supercar Performance brands. Meanwhile, Westminster had 159 registrations per 1,000 house sales, an average house price of £1,729,461 and the highest concentration of British Elegance brands. The third most prominent borough was Elmbridge with 93 registrations per 1,000 house sales and had the highest proportion of super-luxe registrations outside of London.

GRAND TOUR

But expanding the ranking to the top 40 reveals more diversity. Among more predictable showings, such as Barnet, St Albans and Three Rivers, there are also some less predictable entries. Cheshire East, Ribble Valley, Rushcliffe, Harborough, Derbyshire Dales and South Staffordshire all have average house prices below the threshold of £400,000, yet notably high concentrations of super-luxe car ownership relative to the rest of the country.

One reason driving this could in part be one of practicality: the availability of wide open space. Taking Kensington and Chelsea as the most prominent London example, the postcode districts there with the highest concentration of super luxe registrations are SW1X, covering parts of Knightsbridge and Belgravia, SW7 covering South Kensington and SW3 covering Chelsea. All of these districts are unusual for London in that many of the homes have access or proximity to the sort of private garages where one can safely store a luxury vehicle. 

In contrast, the Ribble Valley covers the Forest of Bowland national landscape, which in turn merges into the Yorkshire Dales, providing a spectacular backdrop when taking a prized asset out for a ride. No doubt the borough’s proximity to the key northern cities of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool feeds into these ownership trends. Similarly, Cheshire East is also host to rolling green countryside and picturesque market towns like Knutsford and Wilmslow, both offering easy access to Manchester for the more affluent commuter. Equally, the Derbyshire Dales connects directly to the dramatic landscape of the Peak District and South Staffordshire is well located for a short drive out into the Shropshire Hills.

HOME STRETCH

But perhaps this explanation is too prosaic. We touched earlier on the power of dreams and home purchases at any level are made as much with the heart as they are with the head. The 5-year period covered in this analysis has seen more than its share of sharp economic shocks. In a world that feels increasingly unstable, it is perhaps understandable that some would choose to realise a long-held dream and make whatever compromises are necessary.

ON HIS MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE

A brief coda and a further testament to the power of fantasy: if we exclude EC2V due to the small number of residential dwellings, the postcode district with the highest proportion of ownership for James Bond’s favoured Aston Martin DB5 is SW1A which covers Whitehall. Even with the Budget now in the rear-view mirror, someone may still want to tell Rachel Reeves…