The World Leader: London’s Luxury Property Market

In 2020, London’s luxury property market boomed, experiencing the  highest number of super-luxury home purchases of any city in world.

According to estate agency Knight Frank, 201 ‘super prime’ homes were brought in London last year, collectively worth more than £2.7bn. Global sales of super prime homes fell by only 1%. This is remarkable given the temporary property market shutdown and travel restrictions in place around the world. However, transactions in London rose by 3% in 2020 helping the London luxury property market to rise. In New York, super prime homes fell by 48%. This is no surprise, given that the US real estate market is typically slow leading up to a presidential election.

Super prime homes are defined as properties costing £7.3m and above.

As well as ‘super-prime’ homes, 31 ‘ultra-prime’ homes worth more than £18.2m were also sold in London. Hong Kong and LA trailed behind. Singapore’s ultra-prime market was still notably strong, trebling to 14, while the ultra-high net worth population grew by 10% in 2020.

In other parts of the world, 55 super-prime transactions in Sydney took place. Dubai, saw a reduction in the fall of luxury homes with just 22 transactions compared to 25 in 2019.

London’s luxury property market can be argued to be one of the winners of 2020. We wonder what 2021 will have in store of the ‘super prime’ industry in London. Will the London be the world’s leader in luxury property, or will Hong Kong or L.A regain their position?