By Hugo Cox.
Black Brick: Buyers Have More Power Than at Any Time Since the 2008 Financial Crisis
In one of the most authoritative assessments of London’s super-prime property market to appear in recent years, Black Brick founder Camilla Dell has laid out in stark terms just how dramatically the balance of power has shifted towards buyers — and the exceptional results her clients are achieving as a result, according to in-depth reporting in the Financial Times.
Dell opened with a striking example: a client who offered £3 million below the circa £20 million asking price for a home in a prestigious central London development, held firm through two rounds of counter-offers over several months, and finally had their original bid accepted days after the October Budget. “The public line is that new homes never sell with a price cut, but now that’s just nonsense,” she told the FT. “It’s a measure of how much power buyers have: in nearly 20 years the only market as good for buyers as this one was the few months following the financial crisis of 2008.”
The deals Black Brick has secured for clients this year illustrate the scale of the opportunity: nearly £3.5 million off a £13.5 million Knightsbridge townhouse for a Middle Eastern buyer; £475,000 off a £2.35 million Chelsea apartment; and £1 million off a £4.75 million mews house near Sloane Square.
The forces driving this shift are well established: the abolition of non-dom status removing a significant cohort of international buyers, persistently high borrowing costs, unsold new homes in central London running at close to record levels, and a growing pool of motivated sellers who have been waiting through successive crises and can wait no longer. In the three months to September, just 102 homes sold for £5 million or more in London, down from 155 the previous year.
Yet Dell is clear that this creates a genuine window for well-advised buyers — and that not all segments of the market are equally affected. Middle Eastern buyers using London homes for holidays, families buying for children making London their long-term base, and American buyers unaffected by non-dom considerations are all active. “London will come back,” Dell has said consistently — and for those buying now, the terms available may not be seen again for years.
As featured in the Financial Times
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