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London confirmed as world's capital for expensive homes

29th July 2005 | back to article listings BACK    print this article PRINT

It's no secret that London is an expensive city to live in, with average property prices significantly higher than the UK average, as has been the case historically. In many ways and for many reasons London is the UK's economic hub, a fact reflected in higher living costs, more exclusive properties and consistently high demand for living space. The average UK property price currently sits in the region of £180,000 at most, but figures reveal that in London, this increases to over £220,000.

It may come as something of a surprise that London also tops the charts for expensive homes on the international stage, not simply regarding average property prices in comparison with less urban parts of the country (and indeed other countries) but also in terms of specific, upper-tier luxury properties. In a new compilation of the world's most expensive homes Forbes.com placed Updown Court, an estate on the outskirts of London, in first place. At $122.2 million Updown boasts all the facilities your average millionaire might require, including 103 rooms, five swimming pools, squash court, bowling alley, tennis court, 50-seat screening room, heated marble driveway and helipad, not to mention 24-carat-gold leafing on the study's mosaic floor.

This may an extreme example but the fact of the matter is that the scale of cheap and expensive in London and surrounding areas is greater than in most if not all other parts of the world.

"As far as property is concerned, London is probably is the capital of the world," Trevor Abrahmsohn, founder of Glentree Estates in London told Forbes.com. "It straddles Eastern Europe as well as the Americas and Europe. London is the epicentre of the international cognoscenti. Since the 1970s, I've seen every nationality. Every time there's a hike in oil prices, every time there is a political uprising, all the wealthy refugees come to the UK, and they buy super-luxury property."

These trends extend slightly further down the wealth ladder. Recent figures have shown that the number of first time buyers in London has risen to a 15-month high, with these investors flocking to the capital in their droves. First time buyers constituted over 20 per cent of the London property market in May, marking the highest level of activity since February 2004.

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