Cities are springing back to life, at least for the super-rich.
Research from Knight Frank has revealed a global surge in the sale of $10m-plus pads, with 785 super-prime properties sold in seven global cities during the first half of 2021.
Not only is that more than double the figure for the doldrums of 2020, it is up 52% on the corresponding period of 2019.
Knight Frank’s global research head, Liam Bailey, said: “Vaccine roll-outs have aided the reopening of some of the world’s major cities – giving confidence to wealthy residents to commit to property moves in prime central locations.”
In total, wealthy buyers spent $13.8bn on trophy homes in New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Singapore and Dubai during the period.
London super-prime sales rose from 96 in the first half of last year to 106 in the past six months. But the value of each pricey property was actually lower than last year – averaging a mere $16.1m as opposed to more than $21m – meaning the total transacted was $1.61bn, rather than the $2bn seen in 2020.
Paddy Dring, Knight Frank’s global head of prime sales, said: “London’s super-prime market was the most active in 2020 out of all the cities analysed. The first six months of 2021 has seen sales 10% higher than the same period in 2020, with 106 and 96 sales respectively.
“Space and single-family homes have been highly sought after, with their share of super-prime sales rising to 73% up from around 55% in 2019. Prices in prime central London also registered the first annual growth for five years in May of this year.”
Bailey added that the search for space and a focus on wellbeing were driving decisions, but fears of new coronavirus variants did not seem to be putting punters off purchases. “With the prospect for easier cross-border travel in the final months of the year, we expect super-prime sales to end 2021 on a high.”
New York was the most active super-prime market during the period, with 202 sales above $10m. Interestingly, apartments are back in demand, with super-prime sales of apartments rising from a low of 77% of all super-prime sales in 2020 to 86% in the first half of 2021.
On the opposite coast, Los Angeles has also seen a flurry of activity with 171 super-prime sales so far in 2021 – almost three times the number over the same period in 2020.
Dring said that “lifestyle advantages – such as beaches and green space” had helped the Californian hotspot.
Something similar is stirring in Sydney, with sales more than doubling from 20 to 54, and up 38 compared to the first six months of 2019. As Australia’s borders remain firmly shut, most of the buyers were domestic.
Singapore’s super-prime sales were given a lift by the 20 homes sold at its Eden development, averaging $11m each, which took the total to 119 sales. Sales in Hong Kong, meanwhile,have topped $2.4bn, well above the $1.4bn for H1 2020. Prices have also rebounded to 3% shy of their historical peak, following a fall of 7% in 2020.
Dubai’s super-prime market also rebounded in 2021, with 22 sales in the first five months of 2021, up from just six in the same period of 2020.
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