By Emanuele Midolo.

A “Flight to Quality”: Why Dollar Buyers Are Targeting Prime London’s Best Assets

The sharp fall in sterling has triggered a marked rise in interest from dollar-based buyers across prime central London — not only from the US, but from any market whose currency is pegged to the dollar, including significant demand from the Middle East. The majority of these buyers are purchasing in cash, giving them a decisive advantage over UK-based buyers increasingly hampered by a difficult mortgage market.

The Very Top of the Market Is Outperforming

While Savills data shows overall price growth in central London paused over the past quarter, dipping 0.2% against the previous three months, properties valued at £10m or more told a very different story, posting year-on-year growth of 4.3%. It’s a clear signal that demand is concentrating at the very top of the market, even as the picture below it softens.

We’re Seeing a Client Base That Echoes 2007

As Black Brick Managing Partner Camilla Dell explains, the composition of buyer enquiries right now feels distinctly familiar:

“Our client list looks a bit like it did in 2007 and 2008, before the great financial crisis. [Other than the Americans], a lot of them work in the oil and gas industry, and a lot are from west Africa. I think that we will see a ‘flight to quality’ as we did in 2007. Buyers looking to diversify their wealth will be drawn to best-in-class assets.”

That pattern — wealth increasingly concentrated in energy-linked industries, and buyers actively seeking out the most secure, highest-quality assets available — is a useful lens for understanding the current market. Rather than broad-based demand across prime London, activity is concentrating on the very best properties: well-located, well-specified homes that buyers view as a genuinely defensive store of value.

Why the Timing Appeals to Dollar Buyers

For buyers holding dollars or dollar-pegged currencies, the current combination of a weak pound and a softer prime London market represents a rare double opportunity — securing both a currency advantage and, in some cases, room to negotiate on price, with total savings for well-timed buyers running into the millions of pounds once both factors are combined. Many of these buyers are also taking a medium-term view, treating today’s exchange rate as a source of built-in upside whenever sterling eventually recovers.

Our Take

The current market rewards genuine quality. As diversification-minded buyers — many with roots in the energy sector or wealth built in the US, Middle East and West Africa — look to protect and grow their capital, we expect demand to remain firmly concentrated on the best assets in the best locations, even if the broader market remains subdued in the near term. For owners of genuinely exceptional prime London property, this remains a strong window in which to attract serious, well-funded international interest.

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