Forget Covid-19 and Brexit: London remains a magnet for the super-rich as the luxury property market booms

The United Kingdom has had it tough of late, with a shocking Covid-19 death toll and post-Brexit details still not finalised. That has not stopped the wealthy from spending, though, with the prime Central London property market enjoying its best start to a year since 2017.

The catalyst was thought to be Boris Johnson's Conservative Party election in December, when an international buyer “celebrated” the win with the purchase of a £65 million (US$80.6 million) penthouse in Belgravia. Occupying the top two floors of Belgravia Gate on Grosvenor Crescent, the ultra-prime penthouse of around 9,800 square feet is arranged as a six-bedroom duplex with a 2,000 sq ft private roof top terrace, with interior design by Thomas Juul-Hansen.

Marcus O'Brien, of the Private Office at Beauchamp Estates, who brokered the deal, says this was one of the most expensive properties ever sold in the UK.

But even that pales in comparison to the £200 million-plus the family office of Hong Kong billionaire Cheung Chung Kiu, founder and chairman of CC Land Holdings, reportedly agreed to pay in January for a 45-room mansion in Knightsbridge, overlooking Hyde Park.

From there the momentum has continued to build. Qatari Diar, the developer of Chelsea Barracks, a luxurious collection of flats, town houses and penthouses on a historic former military base in Belgravia, reports £90 million of flats exchanging hands or completing during the first quarter. Qatari Diar, a firm owned by the Qatari royal family, has reportedly spent £3.5 billion transforming the 13-acre site, considered to be one of the most desirable addresses in the world.

In May, Beauchamp Estates sold a four-bedroom, four-bathroom lateral flat in Belgravia for £7.5 million. According to the agent, the buyer was a businesswoman from the Middle East who “wanted a London pied-à-terre because the family like visiting London regularly for shopping and socialising”.