Wealthy Americans set to lead ultra-prime London property purchases - claim

Rich Americans will dominate ultra-premium property purchases in 2023, Beauchamp Estates claims.

The luxury agent suggests that the strength of the dollar against the pound will continue to benefit wealthy Americans buying in London’s ultra-prime housing market this year.

Its analysis suggests the leading buyers of £15m plus homes in London this year will be Americans followed by purchasers from Europe – mainly Swiss, French and Italian - and the Middle East, notably the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, helped by high oil and gas prices.

Research by the agent found that the market for ultra-prime central London property among multi-millionaire and billionaire buyers rose by 30% during 2022.

Over a two-year period, there have been 92 sales for luxury properties priced above £15m, with 52 sales in 2022 compared with 40 in 2021 and 17 in 2020.

Top-end property transactions were driven by American buyers because of the strength of the dollar against the pound, giving them an effective 30% discount on their cost of purchasing property in London.
 
Beauchamp Estates estimates that during 2022, 50% of the deals in prime central London for homes valued above £15m had been to American buyers, purchasing around £620m worth of luxury property, with Swiss, French, Indian and Middle East buyers being the other key acquirers.

Rising interest rates have increased cash purchases by more than 60% for these transactions, according to the research,  a significant shift from 2021 and 2020 when the majority of deals were funded by advantageous interest-only “super-prime mortgages.”

The analysis also found that during 2022 there have been no significant Russian oligarch purchases, unsurprisingly given the invasion of Ukraine, and only a few Chinese top-end residential real estate purchases.

Gary Hersham, Founding Director of Beauchamp Estates, said: “During 2022 there has effectively been one billionaire buyer property deal per week in central London with war, pandemic and the sluggish performance of alternative investment markets driving multi-millionaires and billionaires to return to investing in London residential real estate which is a proven safe haven and stable asset class.”