A top luxury estate agency has said the super-prime London property market has held up better than expected in the face of the government’s non-dom reforms and could benefit from Britain’s “boring but solid” politics amid turbulence elsewhere.
In an interview with City AM, the co-founders of Christie’s International Real Estate (CIRE) said that despite “chatter” that scrapping the old tax regime “might hamper the market in London”, there has been an discernible jump in big ticket property purchases in the capital.
“While I don’t think that changing the non-dom rules was positive, the reality is that almost the opposite has happened,” Mike Golden, co-chief executive of CIRE, said. “The luxury market [in the UK] has been very very strong. The market for the super prime – the more than £10m properties in London – is flourishing.”
In her maiden Budget last October, the Chancellor opted to abolish a centuries-old generous tax status afforded to wealthy foreigners known as the non-domicile (or ‘non-dom’) regime. At the time, she argued that people who “make Britain their home, should pay [their] taxes here”.
The decision sparked a flurry of warnings from the UK’s top estate agencies that demand for London property would suffer for being situated in a less competitive tax jurisdiction.
But Golden and his co-founder Thad Wong quashed that speculation and said the number of super-prime transactions in the final quarter of last year—when the reforms were announced—was double that from the same period in 2023.
“The London market was a little suppressed, but I think that’s coming back,” Golden said. “London is London, and 2023 and 2024 weren’t the best years in the real estate world in general, But the good news is that the UK luxury market has been a little more resilient.”
A mansion in Beverly Hills City, currently listed by CIRE for $75m (£58m) (image courtesy of CIRE)
In an industry dominated by uber-exclusive boutiques, CIRE has become one of the leading global players in the luxury real estate market, rivalled only by fellow auction house spinoff Sotheby’s International Realty.
It has grown rapidly since Golden and Wong bought the licencing rights in 2021, thanks to a combination of savvy licensing deals and expansion into new markets. The shop secured one of 2024’s most expensive property sales—a $152m (£117m) island in Palm Beach—and was responsible for offloading Bridehead Estate in Dorset for approximately £30m.
The super-prime London property market has generally held up better than the rest of the country, as UHNWIs tend to be insulated from higher interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty.
The pair voiced concern that the recent rout in American-listed stocks and the uncertainty surrounding the White House’s capricious application of tariffs, could infect the upper end of US real estate. Both asset classes enjoyed years-long bull runs in the US.
“When you see a jittery stock market, that invokes fear… and fear spreads a lot more than positivity,” Wong told City AM.
Ripley Castle estate in North Yorkshire is currently on the market for £21m (image courtesy of CIRE)
Golden added that the UK’s nascent reputation as a “steady Eddie” economy would be attractive to international super-prime buyers, despite its comparatively high tax burden compared to other developed economies like Italy, Portugal or Switzerland.
“It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see more people continuing to buy in the UK, seeing it as ‘boring but solid’,” he said.
A return of foreign interest in super-prime would mark the end of a nine-year downcycle in luxury London property. Having been a beacon of big-ticket homes since the turn of the century, the capital has struggled to shake off the after-effects of Brexit and the pandemic.
According to Knight Frank, the market has only just returned to pre-Brexit levels, meaning a stark reduction in real terms.