London’s Luxury Property Downturn Looks Set to Get Even Worse
UK tax hikes are thinning out the ranks of super-wealthy homebuyers
Witanhurst in Highgate. London’s largest private home, which newspapers estimated had a value of £300 million.
Photographer: Jose Sarmento Matos/BloombergTakeaways by Bloomberg AI
When two Chinese investors bought a majority stake in a development dubbed “Mayfair’s most exclusive address” in 2015, London’s housing market was booming. Almost 10 years and an insolvency later, half the apartments have yet to be sold.
The travails of 60 Curzon are emblematic of what’s been a miserable period for the city’s prime property market, with prices down more than 20% from their peak. The downtrend is now being supercharged by the recent removal of a tax perk for so-called non-doms and an exodus of wealthy. For realtors, that’s further thinning out the rolodexes of deep-pocketed clients on whom the luxury market has long depended.