London the top luxury residential market last year
The super-wealthy spent more on luxury homes in London last year than in any other city around the world, real estate consultancy Knight Frank said.
International buyers spent about $4 billion on super-prime properties in the UK capital in 2020 – homes with a price tag of more than $10 million.
The sum is higher than the total spent on similar pads in any other city in the world, outstripping property hotspots such as New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.
“London’s super-prime residential market shrugged off Brexit and even looked through the pandemic, confirming the UK capital as the world’s leading wealth destination,” said Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank.
“After five years of price falls, the capital is set for a reset and the latest numbers from Knight Frank’s super-prime data confirm that London is on top of the world.”
Britain’s economy ground to a halt at the start of the pandemic last spring, causing a standstill in the property sector.
However, neither the cycle of lockdowns nor travel restrictions failed to dent the appetite for London property.
The number of sales above $10m in the capital was up on the previous year, with the influx of capital from overseas coming after many Londoners relocated to the outskirts of the city or to larger homes with more space in the countryside.
In total, 201 super-prime properties were sold in London at an average price of $18.6m, with 31 of those buyers paying $25m or more.
Out of the usual top markets, the UK capital recorded a 3 per cent rise in transactions while Hong Kong and New York recorded declines of 27 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively.
Domestic buyers accounted for a third of all activity in London’s $10m-plus market last year, up from 12 per cent in 2019.
European buyers were also more prevalent due to the relative ease with which they could reach the city.
One of the biggest sales of the year involved a £58m ($67.1m) mansion in the leafy area of Belgravia, which was bought by British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta.