London’s luxury homes aren’t enjoying the boom that’s rallied the wider residential market, with travel restrictions one factor holding back buyers
Buyers of luxury homes and mansions in and around London are demanding a new amenity in the age of Covid-19: proximity to private airports.
Super-rich clients are making more journeys in private jets now the pandemic has curbed commercial air travel, according to luxury London real-estate agent Beauchamp Estates. That includes foreign buyers who have been using private planes to fly to England and view properties since the virus struck.
And if an airport’s nearby, that’s a bonus. Windsor Park Hall, a mansion in the rural county of Surrey and near Farnborough Airport, was bought for 21.5 million pounds ($29.3 million) at the end of last year, according to Beauchamp, which brokered the deal. The Russian billionaire buyer used a private jet to attend the 2,700 square-meter property.
But it might take more than an airstrip to revive the luxury homes market in 2021. The British government has floated the idea of an increased capital gains levy to help pay for the economic burden of the pandemic, and that’s on top of a tax increase for overseas buyers from April.
“The taxation here is really what’s suppressing a big wall of money from coming back into London,” said Marcus O’Brien, sales negotiator at Beauchamp.
