By Prime Resi.
Black Brick’s H1 2026 deal book tells a very different story to the one they were writing six years ago. This year, 77% of the homes they have acquired for clients have been houses – a dramatic turnaround from the first half of 2019, when apartments accounted for 92% of their purchases. Even during the pandemic-fuelled race for space in 2021, houses made up just 43% of their deals.
Partner Tom Kain, recently named Buying Agent of the Year at the LonRes Awards, believes the market has become increasingly needs-based, with families looking to upsize or secure a first home continuing to transact regardless of wider market conditions. Flats, by contrast, tend to attract more discretionary buyers. As Tom explains: “They are almost always a second or third home and, if people think it is not a good time to buy, they will wait.” Flats have also faced negative headlines in recent years, from fire safety concerns to leasehold reform and rising service charges.
Stamp Duty has played a major role too: “[Many first-time buyers] have missed out the early rungs of the property ladder altogether, saved up for longer, and go straight into a home they can live in for ten or 15 years – and that is usually a house.”
The figures also confirm that prime London is now overwhelmingly an owner-occupier’s market. Some 92% of the homes they acquired in H1 were intended as primary residences, compared with roughly a third being investment purchases back in 2019. Average budgets have risen to £3.3 million, reflecting buyers’ growing appetite for larger family houses.
Geography is shifting too. Urban villages such as Richmond, Battersea, St John’s Wood and Chiswick featured prominently, with transactions there outpacing traditional PCL postcodes like Belgravia and Chelsea. Back in 2019, almost half their purchases were concentrated around Mayfair, Marylebone, Belgravia and Covent Garden, with the suburbs accounting for just 17% of deals. Tom puts it well: “A lot of our clients tell us they don’t want to live like a tourist in London, they want a community.”
Off-market activity remains a defining feature of the current market. Almost six in ten of their H1 acquisitions were sourced off-market, rising to nearly three-quarters for homes priced above £3 million. As Tom notes: “In a market where sellers are unsure of what price they are going to get, they prefer not to leave a digital footprint if they have to cut their asking price.”
Black Brick’s client base remains internationally diverse, with British buyers consistently making up around four in ten of their transactions across 2019, 2021 and this year, alongside buyers from Singapore, Switzerland, North America and Nigeria.
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