New luxury developments, especially super-prime family houses, have increased the supply and sales levels of ultra-prime housing in London's St Johns Wood, driving the borough up the city's top-10 addresses list and ahead of Mayfair and Kensington, according to the London estate agent Aston Chase.
Hampstead, too, has gained ground for the same reasons and now tops Marleybone, Chelsea and Westminster.
Using sales data from Lonres, Aston Chase sales records and local market intelligence, the firm looked at ultra-prime residential sales across Inner London between January and October 2017 for properties valued above both £10 million (Dh48.3m) and £15m.
Despite London’s ultra-prime residential market remaining “highly-discerning and challenging”, there have been £727m - 50 sales - of ultra-prime deals during 2017 for homes valued above £10m. Of these ultra-prime deals, 30 sales were for houses, the balance for super-luxury apartments.
Within the overall figures, there have been 15 ultra-prime deals for properties sold for over £15m - £331m worth of sales in total. Seven were for super-prime houses, the balance were apartments and penthouses, according to Aston Chase.
Belgravia is London’s top super-prime address for sales over £10m; with £151m worth of deals - seven sales. This is followed by Knightsbridge with eight sales worth £114m.
St Johns Wood ranks in third place, with £88m worth of deals, or six sales, ahead of Mayfair with five deals totalling £74m, Kensington with £73m of deals and six sales, while Hampstead came in next with four sales totalling £54. Regent’s Park/Primrose Hill saw four deals worth with £47.
In a nod to its relatively new-found appeal to the wealthy, St Johns Wood is also home to a regular supercar gathering.
In eighth place on the list comes Marylebone also with four deals, for a total of £37.5m, followed by Chelsea with two deals worth £26.5m . Westminster came in 10th with two sales worth a total of £20.2m.
For £15m-plus deals, the key addresses across London are Hamilton Terrace, Chesham Place, Carlyle Square, Eaton Square, Grosvenor Square, Lancaster Gate, Charles Street, Victoria Road, Wilton Crescent and Redington Road.
While for the rest of London for £10m-plus deals the ratio of sales between houses and apartments is evenly balanced, in north-west London super-prime deals are dominated by the sale of large luxurious new developments, new build or newly refurbished substantial family houses. In St Johns Wood, Hampstead and Regent’s Park/Primrose Hill, all the £10m-plus deals have been for new or newly refurbished homes, with five sales in excess of £15m.
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"The impressive sales performance of St John’s Wood, Hampstead and Regent’s Park/Primrose Hill is down to three factors," says Mark Pollack, the co-founding director of Aston Chase. "Firstly the quality and supply of new super-prime houses and new developments has risen significantly over the past 18 months. Secondly the Inner London residential property market is now product-led rather than location-led, with buyers prioritising newly built or refurbished homes with less emphasis on location.
"Thirdly, north-west London provides super-prime buyers with more space and value compared to the West End. Super-prime homes in St Johns Wood typically sell from £2,250 to £3,250 per square foott; half the cost of buying in Mayfair or Belgravia.
“Historically there have been much higher levels of ultra-prime property stock in Mayfair, Chelsea, Westminster and Kensington, so one would expect the level of £10m-plus deals to be higher in these addresses. However, this year the north-west London locations of St Johns Wood and Hampstead have performed disproportionately well, with St Johns Wood in particular outperforming Mayfair, Chelsea and Kensington.”
Aston Chase said all of the £15m-plus deals it has been involved in so far this year have been to families, typically a couple in their mid-40s to mid-50s, with two to three children. These super-prime buyers have been a combination of British and international purchasers, but significantly none of them have been from EU countries.
“Since the 2017 General Election Inner London residential sales have been very much driven by overseas buyers and they prefer ‘turn key’ new homes rather than second-hand products, which is why the premium market has become very development led," says Simon Deen, the director and head of new homes at Aston Chase.
