A street of houses in Chelsea.
Super-rich buyers spent almost £3bn on luxury properties in London last year that became their “third or fourth” homes and “trophy assets”, property experts have said.
Political uncertainty in the US and Hong Kong, as well as a weak pound, were other key factors that enabled the mega-wealthy from both overseas and within the UK to splurge even as hundreds of thousands of Londoners risked being “plunged into poverty” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The UK capital sold 201 “super-prime” residential homes – defined as costing more than US$10m (£7.3m) – in 2020, easily beating its traditional rivals of Hong Kong, which had 169 sales, and New York, which had 117 sales, according to recent figures by the estate agent Knight Frank.