The number of multi-millionaires and billionaires opting to rent a luxury home in London has “far exceeded” those choosing to buy a super-prime property (£15mn+) this year, reports Abode2.
After crunching data from LonRes, Dataloft and Wealth X, findings lay the blame for a drop-off in super-rich buyers with Stamp Duty and rising interest rates – and warns that London faces “stiff competition” for billionaire patronage from other global wealth hubs.
In the first half of 2023, ultra-high net worth individuals splashed £340mn on London homes valued above £15mn – equivalent to roughly two “billionaire deals” each month. That tally is markedly down on the £404mn-worth of super-prime sales in the same period of 2022, and even further below the £514mn spent in the second half of 2021 (following pandemic lockdowns).
During the same period, H1 2023, between 10 and 11 super-prime homes were rented each month for values over £5,000 per week, with UHNWIs spending almost £15mn to rent homes in London’s best addresses over the first six months of 2023.
London’s ultra-prime rental market is “booming”, with rents in the capital’s prime postcodes surging by 8.8% over the last year. PCL rental values now stand almost 30% above pre-pandemic (2017-2019) levels.
Notably absent from the estate agency’s report, meanwhile, is how top-end PSF sale values have changed in the last year. Knight Frank’s latest Prime Central London Index suggests average prices have fallen by -1.6% over the last year, with much of that (-1.2%) happening in the last six months.
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