‘2021 was a year when more and more people realised they needed some professional help to secure the house of their dreams’, says Black Brick.
PCL agency Black Brick has reported a “vintage year” as more buyers sought out professional help to navigate the market.
The Mayfair-based firm bought 25 properties on behalf of clients over the last 12 months, with a combined value of nearly £100m and an average saving of 3.6% off the asking price.
That compares to 2020’s tally of 13 deals for a total of just under £60m, with an average discount of 7.1%. Prices ranged from £700k – spent by a young musician in Hackney – up to £30m, which was offered for a “full-scale” country estate.
“In recent history it is certainly one of the best years we have ever had,” said Caspar Harvard-Walls (below), a partner in the firm.
Over four in ten of the deals were done off-market, compared to just under one in five during 2020.
“The majority of people have been buying houses, and the availability – in areas like St John’s Wood, Barnes, and Dulwich – has not been great,” said managing partner Camilla Dell: “We are making discreet approaches, because there is so little stock actually on sale.”
A third of this year’s clients were British, while the rest hailed from the USA, Europe, and as far afield as Hong Kong, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Maldives.
The overwhelming majority were owner-occupiers, but that could all change in 2022, added Dell: “We are just starting to see investment interest coming through, from people who think that the prices are right and interest rates are very low. I suspect that this time next year the split between owner occupiers and investors will look very different.”
