Super prime London agents sold just 114 properties over past 12 months
Drastic reductions in the £10m+ housing market within central London in recent years have reduced it to a shadow of its former self, Knight Frank figures reveal.
The number of super prime property sales within the stucco-lined boundaries of central London’s super-prime market shrank to just 114 transactions over the past 12 months, down 9% on the previous year’s total of 126.
These just-released Knight Frank figures may be a shock to many estate agents who don’t operate within the capital’s £10 million and above property market, particularly as many towns in the UK report similar transaction levels.
The coverage the super prime market receives in the news pages of the national press are by anyone’s reckoning out of proportion to their size and importance.
But although representing just 0.15% of all London sales, Super Prime London has in the past been a lucrative hunting ground for a clutch of agents including Knight Frank, Savills, Cluttons, Marsh & Parsons and Hamptons, all of which publish regular updates on this rarefied sales market and which can expect to earn several hundred thousand pounds from a sale.
Knight Frank’s is the latest. It says the super prime property market is ‘stabilising’ after several years of huge annual percentage point decreases of up to 20% in activity as Brexit and the 2014 increases in Stamp Duty for the most expensive properties have taken their toll.
Super prime property
But confidence appears to be creeping back. Knight Frank says there are 7% more buyers registering to buy homes over £10 million, and that heavy discounting by vendors is the main reason.
Properties within the £10m+ market have been reduced in price by an average of 10% over the past 12 months, an increase compared to the 6% reductions seen during the previous 12-month period.
But this is not a reduction in asking price, but rather how far vendors are prepared to go below their original asking price, Knight Franks says.
The area with the biggest asking vs final offer gap over the past 12 months is Chelsea, where vendors have been accepting offers on average 15.5% below their asking price to get a sale.
