London’s top spot for super-prime property crowned
Belgravia has taken the crown as London’s most-sought-after super prime neighbourhood, home to more than a tenth of sales in the capital last year and overtaking Chelsea for the first time since 2020.
The area was even home to London’s first super prime deal of 2025, a £38m mansion on Wilton Crescent.
“Belgravia has benefited from a surge of demand from a younger demographic thanks to significant investment into the area and an evolved retail and restaurant offering,” Alex Christian, co-head of Savills Private Offices, said.
Plus, these buyers are increasingly international, according to Trevor Kearney, founder of The Private Office: Real Estate said.
“There is little doubt that right now the UK, and London in particular, is attractive to international buyers,” Kearney said.
“Especially those purchasing in dollars, who saw their money stretch further and further in the last quarter of 2024 as the dollar strengthened against the pound,” he added.
However, Savills head of super prime residential development Ed Lewis cautioned that prices are set to rise as planning restrictions “mean there will be fewer larger lateral apartments coming through the pipeline”.
The price of the average super prime home in London remains 20 per cent below its peak, according to Savills.
Super prime market picks up
The number of £5 million-plus sales in the capital reached a peak in the fourth quarter of last year, up 25 per cent quarter on quarter.
£1.59bn worth of sales were made in the last three months of the year, up 50 per cent from the third quarter and 26 per cent more than the same period in 2023.
“Early indications, and a busy January, have left me with no doubt that we will continue to see quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year increases across the industry as we move through 2025,” Kearney said.
Savills agents similarly expect the positive trend to continue in 2025, with the cautious mentality observed ahead of this summer’s general election and the Autumn Budget on its way out.
“A combination of political uncertainty and the additional stamp duty surcharge for second homes and changes in non-doms taxation announced in the Budget has meant that it has not been plain sailing for prime London buyers and sellers this year.
“But the bounce in activity towards the end of the year is a testament to the resilience of this market, and the strength of appetite from domestic buyers,” Nick Maud, director of research at Savills, said.
CEO of Fairway Capital, George Brooksbank, agreed that there has been a “noticeable return to the prime central London market” in recent months as “buyer confidence has returned”.
He said that the majority of buyers in the latter months of the year have been in their early 30s to early 50s. These buyers – often international – tend to prefer turnkey homes and often purchase either newly built lateral apartments or houses that have had a major refurbishment.