Super-prime sales plunge again
The continued rise in wealthy residents leaving Britain has caused super-prime property sales in London to plunge by over £100m this year, according to a fresh study that brings the woes afoot at the upper end of London real estate into even sharper relief.
During the first half of this year, the total value of sales worth £15m or more in the capital dropped by £100m compared with the first six months of 2024, the Beauchamp Estates research found, due to there being considerably fewer transactions.
The fall comes off the back what was an already dire 2024 for the top end of London property, when super-prime valuations fell to their lowest level in over a decade. In the first half of last year, total transactions plummeted by 23 per cent year on year, falling from £1.1bn in the first six months of 2023 to £795m the same period a year later.
Between January and June 2025, total transactions in London fell by a further 13 per cent, authors said, taking the total value of sales to £694m.
The Billionaire Buyers in London study is further evidence that the so-called wealth exodus from Britain is continuing the top end of the UK property market into 2025. Agents and property professionals have been warning that non-doms and other ultra-high net worth homeowners have been putting their homes on the market in increasing numbers as they leave the UK.
The Beauchamp Estates analysis claimed that 70 per cent of the vendors of £15m plus London homes selling during 2025 have been non-doms in the process of moving overseas, with most moving to Dubai and others moving to Milan and Monaco.
Lonres data from June showed that new sales instructions – a barometer for new supply on the market – on homes above £5m were up 43 per cent year on year in London. At the same time, agents have warned of slowing demand from other wealthy international buyers as the cohort cools on the UK capital after a succession punitive tax rises on the wealthy.
Super-prime market has ‘turned a corner’
But directors at Beauchamp Estates claimed the slower pace of falls this year showed sentiment in the super-prime market had “turned a corner” and that an increasing number of price-sensitive buyers were capitalising on the lower valuations on offer.
“The current marketplace has become the ‘new normal’ with the present tax regime and economic conditions unlikely to change in the short- to medium-term,” said Jeremy Gee, the property firm’s managing director. “We have seen a marked upturn in sentiment, since viewed in a global and historical context, London property is looking like a good buy.”
There was also evidence of what Gary Hersham, the real estate shop’s founding director branded a “house swapping” phenomenon, as a new wave of Emirati buyers buy up homes being sold by former Londoners moving to Dubai.
“A fascinating ‘house swapping’ process has unfolded in the UK capital with a wave of non-doms relocating to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and a return wave of Emirati buyers purchasing large residences in London,” he said. “London remains an essential location for multi-millionaires and billionaires to buy and have a home as part of their global property portfolio.”