Why discretion is key in the £10m-plus London market

The glamorous world of high-end prime property has been in the spotlight recently with Netflix showcasing agents selling homes to wealthy buyers in London. Guy Meacock discusses how such exposure is not to everyone’s taste and looks at what clients really want.

Some high-net-worth buyers and sellers may be happy to flaunt their wealth, appear on television programmes and splash themselves across social media, but in our experience, most are the polar opposite. Usually those with great wealth are also people most of us will never have heard of, and they are invariably extremely discreet. It’s why so many high-end assets are sold off market as vendors don’t want to advertise the fact that they are selling their home. They value discretion, privacy, security, are understated and anything but flash.

As buying agents, we love it when we come across injudicious selling agents, as information can often be used to our advantage. No doubt their clients would be exasperated at the levels of indiscretion we hear - after all, loose lips seal deals, and invariably in our favour.

The £10 million-plus market in London has been brisk this year, even though the prospect of a Labour government has loomed large for a while. We have secured a number of deals well in excess of this level in the first half of the year to quite a diverse group of buyers ranging from British to Middle Eastern-based individuals through to American families. Although their motivations are different, reassuringly they all have a long-term interest in London as a place to live in, not just as a place to invest. 

Certainly, we find most buyers still desire a strong sense of community, even though many don’t plan to live here full-time. Some developments and areas have become a victim of their own success – becoming ghettoes of second homeowners who are only present several weeks a year. Finding a ‘proper’ community takes time and research, which is where a trusted buying agent can advise.

Well-established high-end markets such as Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair have set themselves apart in the past few years, having become so exclusively international that domestic buyers struggle to identify with them as places where they would actually live. Compare this with Chelsea or Marylebone, for example, which admittedly appeal to a largely European sensibility but which have at their heart a ‘proper’ high street and a range of architecture which creates diversity of purpose ie. people live there, work there and go out there, nothing more complicated than that. Plenty of areas have that offering of course, but the balance has to be right to attract people to buy property there – you don’t want to be one of the few people living in an area frequented mostly by office workers. It is crucial to have diversification in built form with a wide range of different types of property – from small flats and big houses to modern showstoppers and period piles so that you attract a varying demographic, be they young families, downsizers, expats or fortunate students.

We have observed a gravitational pull away from flats towards houses as people buy for longer periods and want more space. Moving is now so expensive that in-between stages are being missed out, with buyers having to plan far into the future in a way they have never had to before. House-heavy areas such as Notting Hill have come spectacularly to the fore - it was perhaps the greatest benefactor of the Covid effect - while flat-led locations like Knightsbridge have struggled in comparison. This is partly a by-product of Covid with people wanting more outside space, seclusion and their own front door, the appeal of communal flat living having been dented as one might imagine. To that end, the appeal of communal gardens and value associated with easy access to London’s many parks is as noticeable as it ever has been.

We aren’t seeing anywhere near the same number of investor clients as before the pandemic. It is hard to foresee anything other than long-term capital growth, but you need to be in the market for a long time to make money. Values at the top end of the market have scarcely moved in the past decade; money invested here is safe but unlikely to grow exponentially in a short space of time.

Plenty of demand remains for new-build turnkey property. The quality is better than ten years ago but bear in mind that service charges have escalated so you will pay for that quality. People want the peace of mind that comes from portered accommodation, particularly if they are not going to live here full time and require a lock-up-and-leave. The irony is that flats don’t give you the same degree of control as a freehold house; not only are the service charges out of your control, you often have people living above, below and next to you.

That said, a recent discussion with the concierge team at one of London’s finest new schemes was revealing – he declared that residency levels hardly ever increased beyond 40 per cent at any given time. Our client – buying a pied-a-terre while they educate their children here – was thrilled, relieved that the waiting list for the treatment rooms downstairs was going to be far shorter than she feared. Proof that one person’s downside is another’s massage oil half full.