London super prime luxury property market was world leader in 2020

2020 proved to be a hit for London’s super-luxury home purchases of any city in the world. London outperformed city rivals such as New York and Hong Kong.

According to Knight Frank, 201 super prime homes – worth more than £2.7bn collectively – were bought in London in 2020, whilst second-place city Hong Kong has 169 sales.

Knight Frank found that overall, global sales of super prime homes – defined as properties costing £7.3m and above – fell just 1% in 2020.

The small fall in sales compared with 2019 is remarkable given the current situation of property market shutdowns and travel restrictions in place globally, it said.

London transactions rose by 3% in 2020, in Hong Kong and New York they dropped by 27% and 48% respectively, allowing London to jump into the top spot – up from third place the previous year.

London’s ‘super-prime’ luxury property market was world leader in 2020 — London’s super prime luxury property market was world leader in 2020

Domestic buyers accounted for a third of all activity in London’s super prime market, up 12% a year earlier.

London also boasts the highest number of deals struck for super expensive “ultra-prime” homes last year. Thirty-one homes worth more than £18.2m were sold in the capital, Hong Kong had 23 similarly valued homes, and LA had 16.

These numbers contrast with “normal” house price trends in the capital. Nationwide published figures for the first three months of 2021 showing London was the UK’s weakest performer.

Liam Bailey, the global head of research at Knight Frank, said London is on top of the world.

“London’s super-prime residential market shrugged off Brexit and even looked through the pandemic – confirming the UK capital as the world’s leading wealth destination.

After five years of price falls, the capital is set for a reset and the latest numbers from Knight Frank’s super-prime data confirm that London is on top of the world.”

The figures show that New York’s super-prime property market faced a series of challenges throughout 2020. The US real estate market, typically slow leading up to a presidential election, also had to contend with being hit hard by Covid shutdowns.

By contrast, waterfront property markets in the US stood out, with super-prime transactions in Miami more than doubling compared with 2019. Palm Beach and Los Angeles also recorded an increase of 78% and 26% respectively in sales above $10m.

In Sydney, 55 super-prime transactions took place in 2020, up from 46 the previous year.

Singapore’s ultra-prime market performance was notably strong, almost trebling to 14 in 2020. The city-state’s ultra-high net worth population grew by 10% in 2020. Singapore’s appeal had grown as a hub for asset and wealth management, said Knight Frank.

Dubai, on the other hand, recorded a fall in the sale of luxury homes – with 22 transactions last year compared with 25 in 2019.