Knight Frank: Super-prime market sees surge in 2020

The London super-prime property market has seen a surge in activity in 2020, according to Knight Frank.

Data collected by the firm shows that between January and August 2020 £1.13bn was spent on super-prime properties within London.

Looking to the same time period in 2019, the market recorded a total spend of £977.5m, 16% lower than the figure seen in 2020.

Yorkshire sees largest increase in property asking prices

Furthermore, the proportion of super-prime exchanges which have involved British buyers in 2020 was recorded at 40%, the greatest amount in over a decade.

Knight Frank has attributed this change to the restrictions on travel due to coronavirus.

In 2020 the area which saw the highest amount of super-prime deals was Kensington, accounting for 14.3%; in contrast, Mayfair noted the greatest quantity of super-prime deals in 2019, at 24.6%.

According to the firm, the demand for outdoor space has seen increased activity as a result of the pandemic; this has led to Notting Hill, St Johns Wood, Hampstead and Belgravia accounting for 66% of all super-prime sales between January and August 2020.

Paddy Dring, global head of prime sales at Knight Frank, said: “The key motivators of capital preservation, the UK education system and cheap debt are unchanged.

“The trend for more outdoor space has benefitted suburban and country markets but buyers are retaining a London investment for the long-term. Prices are robust with single-digit percentage discounts but no more.”

Rory Penn, head of the private office at Knight Frank, added: “Large discounts are not available despite the pandemic. Vendors are resilient, debt is cheap and banks are not calling in loans.

“Prices, for now, do not feel like they have much further to fall after the declines of recent years. It does not appear that another 10% is about to come off overnight.

“The number of deals in 2020 compared to last year underlines the liquidity and resilience of the market.”