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By Emily Mee, Money team
The cost of living crisis has not slowed London’s prime property boom.
A total of 54 properties in the capital sold for £15m or more last year, costing their buyers a combined £1.3bn.
Many of these properties are “invisible” to the average buyer – never making it to sites like Zoopla or Rightmove, and instead becoming part of an almost underground market accessible only to the super rich and in-the-know.
Marc Schneiderman, founder of luxury estate agency Arlington Residential, knows all about this market.
Super rich buyers will often have family offices (private wealth advisory firms) running the sale process, he says, along with top lawyers, surveyors, architects and designers – all of whom will be on standby and able to get to the property “very quickly”.
It’s often these teams who will approach estate agents or selling agents with specifics on what the super rich buyer is looking for – which can sometimes mean finding a property on a particular sought-after street.
In some cases, estate agents might be asked to approach the owners of properties to find out if they’re willing to sell – and while this works “infrequently”, it can help if the potential buyer is well-known.
Specific requests
“I’ve had a request recently from somebody with a car collection who wants to house that underground,” Mr Schneiderman says.
This isn’t too easy to find in central London, but he says there are a “few houses” in the Hampstead area.
Another tricky request is from somebody who wants a tennis court – “that’s quite hard to find in certain parts of London” – and another who needs a recording studio, ideally in a separate building at the bottom of the garden.
Simon Tollit, partner at luxury selling agency Tedworth Property, says there is a “very large market” that is “invisible and off-market to the majority”.
He reckons about half of luxury properties – those valued at about £10m-plus – will never end up on websites.
“That’s where a buying agent or family office will prove their worth because they have a relationship with people like us,” he says.
The properties likely to get snapped up the quickest are known in the business as “triple A” homes.
Mr Tollit says that in London these might be the white porticoed properties on Eaton Square, in Belgravia, a period house in Chelsea, or a townhouse on Chester Square.
Wealthy buyers will often be looking for lateral apartments, a big roof terrace, high ceilings, a good outlook and lots of entertaining space.
There is still “great demand” for these places – as Mr Tollit points out, London is not growing in terms of prime housing stock.
But despite what many might expect, he says he has found dealing with the super rich “actually quite straightforward”.
“They are super, super successful, know exactly what they’re looking for, and are clinical in terms of not wasting their time,” he says.
While security is often a big factor for the super rich, he says some of the wealthiest people are “super discreet” – “they can walk down the road and you wouldn’t bat an eyelid”.
“Some of the wealthiest people I’ve worked with and sold properties to are very unassuming. Literally you wouldn’t know that they had two pennies to rub together,” Mr Tollit says.
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