London buyers spent a record amount on luxury real estate in 2021 with total transactions at £11.6 billion.
Wealthy buyers spent more than ever on luxury homes in London last year, according to a report released by LonRes. LonRes is a real estate data company that has compiled its analysis of the city’s prime market, covering upmarket areas such as Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Hampstead and Notting Hill. Indeed, buyers in the British capital have set a record £11.6 billion ($15.9 billion) for luxury properties in 2021.
This is the highest spending since 2000, when LonRes began tracking this data, and represents a 45 percent jump from 2020. It’s also 1.2 percent higher than the previous peak set in 2014. The total was supported not only by a jump in property values in the city’s high-end core, which rose 6.5 percent annually, but also by an increase in expensive transactions. Overall, 2021 was an exceptional year for transactions in prime London, and the year ended with an increase in sales within the very high end, according to the report.
Ultra luxury and space
“The top end of the market, which we define as properties sold for £5 million or more, was the most active in the fourth quarter of the year,” explains Marcus Dixon, research director at LonRes. During the quarter, “the number of homes sold increased by 15% [compared to] 2020 and 47% compared to the previous five-year average.”
Unsurprisingly, given the constraints of the global pandemic, buyers raced for square footage, privacy and outdoor space. More than half of the £11.6 billion spent last year came from home sales: Home transactions accounted for 53 percent, or £6.1 billion of that total spending, a 26 percent increase over 2014, when the housing market last peaked.
“Demand, which increased at the end of the year, is likely to carry over into the first quarter of 2022, when we expect to see sales volumes increase again,” Dixon completes.
Sales of luxury properties priced above £15 million have doubled to 32 sales in 2021, up from 17 in 2020, according to a survey by Beauchamp Estates. Weak supply for sought-after prime property types, particularly mansions and penthouses in turnkey properties, is expected to continue to push prices higher.
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Featured photo : © Christian Vasile / Unsplash
