While this is extreme even by the very wealthy standards as up-keep is mammoth, anyone with the big bucks can see inflation-hyperinflation on the horizon. They are converting paper assets to hard assets and paying all cash. The really good stuff in London has been picked-over and bought-up.
Buyers like “The City” and perceive this location handier than the country for shopping, culture, commercial access and airports. Most of the best of the best in London was sold-off 2-4 years ago.
London’s Luxury House Prices Advance as Overseas Buyers Compete for Havens. “Luxury-home prices in central London gained for a 14th consecutive month in December as overseas buyers sought safer investments and competed for a smaller number of properties for sale, Knight Frank LLP said.
“Values of houses and apartments costing an average of 3.7 million pounds ($5.7 million) rose by an average of +0.8% from a month earlier, the London-based broker said in a report today. Prices are +7% higher than a previous peak, in March, 2008. ‘Demand for prime London property in 2011, despite uncertainty resulting from the Euro-zone debt crisis and ongoing global economic uncertainty, outpaced supply and led to strong price performance,” Liam Bailey, head of residential research, said in the report.”
“London luxury-home values rose +12.1% in the year through December, the smallest 12-month gain in three months. Prime central-London prices have risen around +40% since the market’s low in March, 2009, Knight Frank said. U.K. home prices overall fell- 0.9% in December to a 30-month low. ‘Tight supply has remained a feature of the prime central London property market through 2011,” Camilla Dell, founder of London-based Black Brick Property Solutions LLP, said in a separate report. “We see little reason why this might change materially in 2012.” London has the most people in Europe with a net worth of more than $30 million, according to Wealth-X, a company that works with banks and luxury brands to build a database of people who together hold around $10.7 trillion. The U.K. capital has 5,955 “ultra wealthy” people, more than twice as many as Paris, which has 2,850, according to a Wealth-X report. Zurich is third with 1,775. -Chris Spillane 1-9-12 Bloomberg.net
In our view, we like producing farmland for income versus luxury homes. But, super rich like the big homes.
