Sell-off of prime London properties hits £400m in rush before UK budget

Sale of Saatchi art house for almost £7m results in £125,000 stamp-duty saving after Chancellor raised tax

The £6.75 million Saatchi art house was the last property to be sold in London's Mayfair before the budget last week. Photo: Wetherell / Casa E Progetti

Sales of about £400 million ($518 million) prime and super-prime residential properties in London were rushed through before UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves's budget last week, high-end estate agents and property brokers have said.

Stamp duty, payable by the buyer in a property transaction, rose from 3 per cent to 5 per cent in Labour's first budget in 14 years. The change came into force last Thursday, the day of the budget. Predicting this would happen, overseas property buyers were keen to complete sales before Ms Reeves unveiled her budget last Wednesday.

"From June onwards, we noticed a 30 per cent rise in overseas clients enquiring about suitable homes in the capital that they could purchase and get fast-tracked before budget day," Paul Finch, director and head of new homes sales at Beauchamp Estates, told The National.

"However, the number of pre-budget deals reached a crescendo over the last four weeks and prior to budget day Beauchamp Estates sold a £21.5 million mansion on Lygon Place to an Asian billionaire, a £15 million penthouse in Westminster to an EU businessman and a £9.5 million Knightsbridge apartment to an Indian family.”

The rise in stamp duty last week has essentially added £200,000 to the price of a £10 million home. Market watchers expect a quieter time for the next few months because Ms Reeves's move created a bottleneck of rushed sales. “Any rises in stamp duty tend to stall the market for a period until the increase is absorbed by values," said Edward Rook, head of the country department at estate agents Knight Frank. "Ultimately the vendor pays the stamp duty and it will be massaged into values by the spring selling season.”

One buyer who saved about £1.6 million in tax by getting the purchase over the line before the anticipated increase is fashion designer and film director Tom Ford, who bought an £80 million mansion in London's Chelsea in the weeks leading up to the Budget.

Thought to be the UK’s most expensive deal of the year, the purchase of a house believed to be a white stucco-fronted mansion in one of London’s garden squares brings Mr Ford's global property portfolio to about £270 million.

The Mayfair-based property agents Wetherell clinched a deal for an American buyer just before the budget for the 264.3-square-metre white stucco, three-bedroom house in Hay’s Mews that was designed by acclaimed minimalist architect John Pawson. Sold for £6.75 million, the house was the last sale in Mayfair before the budget.

The mews house was once adorned with millions of pounds worth of modern art, originally renovated for notable art collector Doris Lockhart Saatchi, the first wife of Charles Saatchi. She sold it to US art collector and finance executive Ralph Goldenberg about 24 years ago. Both owners used the house as their home and private art gallery.

“In the three months between the start of August and budget day at the end of October, we have seen a huge wave of sales as existing vendors have sought to exit London and a rush of incoming buyers, particular from India and America, who have raced to buy prior to the budget and the rise in stamp duty,” Peter Wetherell, founder and executive chairman of Wetherell, told The National.

Parallels with Hong Kong handover

There are, of course, two sides to every coin. The long-predicted scrapping of the non-domiciled tax status and the increase in some forms of capital gains made the UK a less-friendly tax environment for the resident ultra rich than it has been for some time. As such, many decided to quit Britain and, as such, the market became full of trophy homes for the first time in years.

"Wealthy UK residents and non-doms have put their London homes on the market and looked at moving their main residence to Dubai, the French Riviera or Monaco," Mr Finch told The National. "So we have seen a surge in mansions, houses and apartments in Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair being put on the market as these people have sought to exit the UK.

"But we have also seen an incoming wave of wealthy cash buyers from America, India and Asia who have come in and snapped up a host of trophy homes – that normally don’t come on to the market – and have fast-tracked the deals before budget day to avoid the stamp duty rise."

For Beauchamp Estates, the trend is quickly changing to higher demand for smaller pied-a-terre residences, priced between £10 million and £25 million, rather than the palatial mansions of £25 million and above.

The reason for this is the exit of the ultra-wealthy non-doms, whose tax status will fall away by April next year. They are moving their main residential centres to the likes of Dubai, but still want to have a convenient yet more modest residence in London. Meanwhile, buyers from India and East Asia see there are bargains to be had in the £25 million-plus market, which they'll view mainly as investment properties.

“I think the April 2025 non-dom deadline will be like the London version of the deadline for the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China," Mr Finch told The National. "In the final six months before the handover of Hong Kong, there was a scramble of wealthy Hong Kong residents who sold up and relocated to Singapore, London and Kuala Lumpur.

"In the same way, we are likely to see a second wave of sales over the coming months as non-doms exit and new buyers take their place. Its notable that Asian and Indian buyers in particular are looking at buying in London for a long-term investment, so they are not discouraged by non-dom or stamp duty adjustments. These are pieds-a-terre for them and their children.”