Buyers from Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and India currently lead overseas interest in purchasing apartments and houses in Prime Central London’s best addresses, alongside domestic UK applicants working in finance and law. All buyers are ideally wanting homes that provide outside space in the form of terraces or gardens. These are some of the findings from a new survey of buyer trends by DEXTERS, reviewing demand across its Prime Central London office network.

DEXTERS is London’s leading independent Chartered Surveyor and Estate Agent with 70 offices across the capital, including 12 in Prime Central London, providing a greater presence in the heart of the capital than any other estate agency.

DEXTERS’ survey looked at what buyers are seeking to purchase across London’s central addresses including Mayfair, Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Covent Garden, Westminster, Chelsea, Knightsbridge, South Kensington, Kensington, Notting Hill, Westbourne Grove and Hyde Park. Within these central addresses DEXTERS portfolio of properties includes homes for sale priced from £2 million to £20 million and lettings priced from £1,250 per week to £30,000 per week.

The DEXTERS survey found that across the best residential addresses, apartments with large balconies or outside terraces priced from £850,000 up to £3 million and low-rise houses or mews properties with gardens priced from £2.5 million to £6 million are seeing particularly high buyer demand at present. In Mayfair the value of the most desirable homes was significantly higher than other London addresses, with apartments priced from £6 million to £12 million and houses up to £20 million being wanted by buyers. The survey found that buyers are currently willing to pay a premium for homes which have their own private entrance (rather than a shared hallway) or offer a large terrace or garden.

DEXTERS highlight that the Prime Central London residential property market is the busiest it has been for over five years. For the 12 centrally located offices, sales agreed over £2 million from mid June to mid August 2020 were 85% up on the same period in 2019, whilst lettings transactions for values over £1,250 per week were up 41%, compared to the same period in 2019.

The DEXTERS website is currently averaging over 90,000 visitors a week, compared to 65,000 visitors per week at the start of the year prior to the UK lockdown, a 38% increase in viewer traffic. DEXTERS now has 100,000 buyers and tenants registered, up from 90,000 in January 2020 and 80,000 over the same time last year.

The DEXTERS survey found that the addresses currently most popular and desired by buyers included Mount Street and Grosvenor Square in Mayfair; the ‘Old Chelsea’ addresses of Cheyne Row, Upper Cheyne Row and Glebe Place; Marylebone Village in Marylebone; Old Queen Street and Queen Anne’s Gate in Westminster; Warwick Square, Ecclestone Square and Moreton Place in Pimlico; and Onslow Gardens and Cranley Gardens in South Kensington.

At present DEXTERS is finding that the largest numbers of overseas buyers originate from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, India, America and Italy, with the vast majority (over 80%) being cash buyers with no need for mortgage finance. Currently the most popular type of property with overseas buyers in Prime Central London is a spacious two bedroom apartment with an outside terrace located in an apartment building providing a hotel-like concierge or porter.

The DEXTERS survey found that overseas buyers tend to prefer apartments that have a layout arranged so that the living spaces are closer to the entrance, with the bedrooms beyond, with some overseas buyers preferring a separate rather than open plan kitchen.

Including both overseas and domestic buyers, DEXTERS’ apartment purchasers are typically young couples in their early 30s to early 40s without children, or buyers in their mid-to-late 20s with funding from the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’. Buyers purchasing houses tend to be in their late 30s to mid 50s and have a family, with 1-2 children.

DEXTERS found that domestic UK buyers purchasing homes in central London tend to work in finance, law or hedge funds, with their company offices based in either Mayfair, the City of London or Canary Wharf. Therefore, homes that provide easy access via the Central, District/Circle and Jubilee underground lines into the West End, City or Canary Wharf have an enhanced appeal.

Richard Page, Marketing Director at DEXTERS says: “Currently the Prime Central London residential property market is the busiest it has been for over five years. DEXTERS network of 12 Prime Central London offices are finding that due to the pent-up demand that surfaced after the lockdown and people choosing to holiday in the UK this year rather than overseas, there is a particularly strong market this summer. Our offices are seeing that buyers are currently willing to pay a premium for homes that benefit from their own private entrance or offer a large terrace or garden. All the activity we are currently seeing gives us every confidence about the outlook for the Prime Central London property market.”