Hongkongers buy ‘three to five properties a week’ in UK regional cities as agents enjoy brisk sales from emigration wave
- Savills reports brisk deals from Hong Kong buyers as emigration wave continues
- Average UK house prices rose in March by the most in about 14 years before easing in April as London ranked the most expensive of all regions
“We are doing three to five deals a week in regional cities from Bristol to Manchester,” said Mark Elliott, head of international residential at the property consultancy Savills based in Hong Kong. “We have seen a slight shift from off-plan properties to constructed or second-hand homes.”
The firm’s office in Hong Kong has clinched £87 million (US$120 million) worth of sales this year from local buyers, he added, of which 80 per cent was focused on prime London locations.
Foreign investors bought 30 per cent of homes in Greater London in 2020, up from 27 per cent in 2019, according to property agency Hamptons, near the record-high of 35 per cent in 2018. Hongkongers made up the second largest group of buyers in luxury homes in central London, accounting for 8.5 per cent of transactions by foreigners in 2020, according to Knight Frank.
This year’s rush stems from the UK’s offer of long-term stay with a path to citizenship for Hongkongers with British National (Overseas) passports from July last year. It coincides with a rebound in the UK housing market amid efforts to reopen the economy following the Covid-19 pandemic.