That’s Rich! London’s most expensive properties show sign of recovery

London’s super prime residential market shows signs of recovery with more £5m-plus sales recorded in the first four months of 2021 than in any year since 2014, according to Savills.

There were 43 £5m-plus sales during last month alone, the highest April figure again since 2014. 

This brings the total for the first four months of the year to 142, a third higher than in the same period in 2020 and 65 per cent higher than in 2019.  Again, this is the strongest performance since 2014, when there were 159 deals in the same four months, and this despite the introduction of an additional two per cent stamp duty surcharge on buyers based overseas.

The total spent on these deals has also increased, reaching £1.42 billion in January-to-April inclusiver, 32 per cent higher than in 2020 and 63 per cent above 2019.  That puts the average deal price at just over £10m.

“Prime central London values looked ripe for recovery in early 2020 after five years of price falls which left prices around 20 per cent below peak” says Frances Clacy, Savills research analyst. 

“It now looks as though buyers are themselves calling the bottom of the market and acting on the perceived value – a window of opportunity that could close quite quickly.  This is particularly true of domestic and UK domiciled buyers, who’re able to take advantage of the low levels of competition from overseas buyers until travel corridors reopen. 

“Unsurprisingly, in the race for space the domestic house market is stronger than the flat market, but we expect this to rebalance as international buyers start returning to the market over coming months.”

Savills forecasts price growth for this niche sector of three per cent this year and around seven per cent in 2022, with total growth to the end of 2025 expected to reach 21.6 per cent.

The highest concentration of domestic buyers was in W11 - Notting Hill and the fringes of Holland Park - accounting for 13.6 per cent of deals this year to date compared to the 8.2 per cent average over the previous four years.