London Gets a Taste of New York’s Cut-Throat Real Estate Culture
The affluent area of Belgravia in central London.
Photographer: Chris Gorman/Getty ImagesTakeaways NEW
When Marcus O’Brien brokered the sale of an £80 million ($102 million) mansion in London’s Kensington and Chelsea district last year, he pocketed at least a 20% share of the roughly £1.6 million commission UK Sotheby’s International Realty charged the seller.
It’s a familiar practice among US realtors, but in London’s luxury housing market — dominated by a handful of firms that have been selling the city’s priciest property since the 1800s when Queen Victoria was on the throne — it represented a revolution.