Middle Eastern and US buyers dominate top end of London's property market

Together they accounted for 45 per cent of sales of super-prime properties in the UK capital this year

139 Piccadilly, overlooking London's Green Park, is priced at £29.95 million. Casa E Progetti / Tony Murray Photography

Sales at the very top of London's property market have surged this year among US and Middle Eastern buyers, who now account for almost half of purchases.

American citizens bought 25 per cent of all super-prime London properties, or homes worth more than £20 million ($25.5 million), in the year to September, while Middle Eastern buyers, around a third of whom are from the UAE, bought 20 per cent of homes in the category, according to data from Beauchamp Estates and LonRes.

That is a rise of 11 percentage points on 2023, when together they accounted for a little more than a third, or 36 per cent, of all super-prime London sales.

One property which may interest super-prime buyers is 139 Piccadilly, a mansion townhouse offering 14,624 square feet (1,358 square metres) of space overlooking London's Green Park. It is priced at £29.95 million. Most recently used as an office building, it has full planning permission to convert back into a single family house, which could be worth up to £70 million upon completion.

Meanwhile, luxury developer Caudwell has topped out its £2 billion residential scheme 1 Mayfair, where apartment prices start from £35 million, with completion planned for spring 2026.

The topped out building and advanced stage of construction at 1 Mayfair. Photo: Caudwell

“When you compare £20 million-plus sales this year, January to September 2024, with the equivalent figures for 2023, sales to both American and Middle Eastern buyers have grown, from 18 per cent to 25 per cent of all sales for American purchasers, and from 18 per cent to 20 per cent of all sales for buyers from the Gulf region,” Paul Finch, director and head of new homes at Beauchamp Estates, told The National.

By contrast, British buyers of super-prime properties in London fell from 12 per cent to 10 per cent, and there were also decreases in sales to people in Eastern Europe (13 per cent to 8 per cent); in Western Europe (6 per cent to 5 per cent) and India (from 23 per cent to 20 per cent). The only other group to grow was those from China and Hong Kong, up from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.

But London is not the only popular European destination for American property buyers. US buyers account for an even larger chunk of super-prime homes above €30 million euros ($31.7 million) in the French Riviera, at 80 per cent of all sales, said Mr Finch.

Middle Eastern buyers there are a much smaller group, according to Mr Finch, but are growing. They are typically younger, in their late twenties to early forties, and represent the “next generation” of the Gulf elite who are looking for properties, homes ready to move in and close to the sea, near the larger homes of their elder family members, many of whom have owned property along the French Riviera dating back to the oil price boom of the 1970s.

The $390 million, 39-residence Le Provencal in Antibes development by Caudwell is one example proving popular with buyers from both the US and Middle East, a spokesman for the company told The National.

In London, buyers from the Middle East – 30 per cent of whom are from the UAE, 30 per cent from Saudi Arabia, 10 per cent from Qatar and the remainder from other GCC countries – are also increasingly younger.

“In London, the younger buyers are typically in their late twenties to late thirties, looking to spend £3 million to £5 million on a pied-à-terre,” said Mr Finch. “Alongside the younger generation of buyers from Middle East there are also buyers aged between 40 to 60 who will typically spend between £10 million to £30 million on buying a house, villa or large luxury apartment in London.”

They tend to favour Mayfair, Belgravia, Knightsbridge and the Hyde Park estate, with four streets being particularly popular – Duke Street in Mayfair, the Edgware Road by the Hyde Park Estate, and Basil Street and Brompton Road in Knightsbridge.

American families tend to prefer large family houses or family apartments, ideally new-build or newly refurbished, in Notting Hill, Chelsea and St John’s Wood, close to the American school. “The American billionaires tend to choose mansions, lavish pied-a-terres or penthouses in Belgravia, Mayfair, St James’s or Regent’s Park,” said Mr Finch.

Agents expect the number of US buyers to grow over the next four years as a result of president-elect Donald Trump’s victory. “Last time Donald Trump was in power we saw a significant 20 per cent upturn in wealthy Democrats buying £15 million-plus homes in London and the South of France to live out the first Trump administration.

“Since June 2024, we've noticed a 30 per cent rise in overseas clients enquiring about suitable homes in the capital that they could purchase, and the largest group of buyers have been Americans.”

Illustrious history in Mayfair

Inside 139 Piccadilly, which could be used as a home, commercial property, embassy or private members' club. Casa E Progetti / Tony Murray Photography

139 Piccadilly was built in 1760-64 and was the Mayfair home of William Douglas, the 4th Duke of Queensberry, who paid for his long-term mistress Kitty Frederick to live in a neighbouring house, 135 Piccadilly.

After the Duke’s death the property became the London home of the newly married poet Lord George Byron and his wife Annabella. In 1891 it was let to and eventually bought by Baron Emile Beaumont d’Erlanger, whose family owned the French merchant bank Emile Erlanger and Company, and his wife Baroness Catherine d’Erlanger, one of Mayfair’s most important society hostesses of the time. Catherine was a multi-millionairess in her own right. Her father, the Marquis d’Aqueria de Rochegude, was a French landowner and shipping magnate who owned the Château de Rochegude (where Caroline was raised) and was the heir to the Medici family banking fortune.

Other distinguished guests included neighbour the Duchess of York (who became Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother), the ballet dancer Serge Lifar, French author Paul Morand, society photographer Cecil Beaton, and Winston and Clementine Churchill.

In the 1940s it was sold and has served as a private member’s club and later commercial office premises before returning to residential use just over a decade ago.

Robert Britten, sales director at Wetherell, said: “This magnificent period building is one of the few surviving private palaces in Mayfair providing a discerning buyer with the opportunity to regenerate and transform it into a single palatial family home, an embassy, private members’ club, new offices or a flagship retail boutique. Buildings of this scale and importance and in such an ultra-prime Green Park location rarely come up for sale.”

Churchill connection

48 Berkeley Square, formerly the childhood Mayfair home of Winston Churchill. Photo: Wetherell

Another property that may appeal to buyers from the US is an apartment in Mayfair’s Berkeley Square. It is on the site of a building once home to two British prime ministers – Sir Winston Churchill and Earl Grey.

The two-bedroom, 1,859-square foot apartment, on the third floor of 48 Berkley Square, is on the market for £6.5 million.

The two-bedroom apartment, on the third floor of 48 Berkley Square, is on the market for £6.5 million. Photo: Wetherell

Sir Winston’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill, leased a property at the address between January 1874, the year Winston was born, and December 1879 as his London home. He lived there with his wife Jeanette, Lady Churchill, an American-born socialite, after becoming elected as the Conservative MP for Woodstock.

Recent American buyers of London property include the fashion billionaire Tom Ford, who has bought a mansion in Chelsea in an £80 million deal.