The super-rich spent more on luxury homes in London a year ago than in any other city across the globe, real estate consultancy Knight Frank said.
International purchasers spent nearly $4 billion on super-prime properties in the UK capital in 2020 – homes with a price tag of more than $10m.
The total is higher than the total spent on comparative pads in any other city in the world, overwhelming property areas of interest like 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.”
England’s economy came to a standstill toward the beginning of the pandemic the previous spring, causing a halt in the real estate sector.
However, neither the pattern of lockdowns nor head-out limitations neglected to dent the hunger for London property.
The number of deals above $10m in the capital was up in 2019, with the influx of capital from overseas coming after a huge number of Londoners relocated to the outskirts of the city or to bigger homes with more space in the countryside.
Altogether, 201 super-prime properties were sold in London at an average cost of $18.6m, with 31 of those purchasers paying $25m or more.
Out of the standard top business sectors, the UK capital saw deals increase by 3%, while Hong Kong and New York saw theirs fall by 27% and 48 percent individually.
Domestic purchasers represented 33% of all movement in London’s $10m-plus addition to advertising a year ago, up from 12% in 2019. European purchasers were also more common because of the general simplicity with which they could arrive at the city.
Probably the greatest offer of the year included a £58m ($67.1m) mansion in the leafy area of Belgravia, which was purchased by British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta.
A more vulnerable pound and the resolution of the Brexit saga, which had hosed craving for London properties and depressed prices, caused the surge in demand, Mr. Bailey said.
The normal British house value hit a record high of £254,606 ($348,891) in March, as the market saw a resurgence in movement after UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak’s expansion of the stamp duty holiday in his annual budget.
House costs in March were 1.1 percent higher than in February, the main ascent since November, the Halifax House Price Index appeared, and 6.5 percent higher than in March 2020 – what might be compared to £15,430 in cash terms.