Mina has been trying to sell her six-storey town house on Ovington Square in Knightsbridge for more than three years. The hedge fund manager, who declined to give her surname, and her lawyer husband relocated to central London from New York state in 2007 and fell for the home’s stately salon “made for entertaining” — a former owner once entertained Pablo Picasso and the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova.
“The house is an acquired taste, and buyers seem to want more modern homes,” says Mina, who divides her time between the UK and US. She thinks her home will probably be sold to an international buyer who will “come along and gut the whole thing”.
Her property is in one of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, favoured by wealthy international buyers, but it is not the only one sticking on the market (at £10.95mn, through Knight Frank). Among the many that have had their prices reduced are a one-bedroom flat near Hyde Park, now available for £1.05mn, 25 per cent less than it was listed for last May; and a three-bedroom house near Harrods, which has had its price cut by £1mn since it was listed in September for £4.75mn.
Thanks to a sharp rise in the cost of renovating, many of those homes struggling to sell need work, says Becky Fatemi of estate agents UK Sotheby’s International Realty. The Knightsbridge market is divided: “It’s turnkey or a fire sale,” she says. “Buyers who can’t find the new-build they want are looking at other areas — or renting.”
International buyers have been slower to return to Knightsbridge after the pandemic than to other areas. Last year the average property sold for 12.4 per cent below the asking price, according to LonRes, which tracks the prime central London market, where the average is -9.4 per cent. Properties in Knightsbridge also took longer to sell, on average.
Middle Eastern buyers, a mainstay of Knightsbridge’s pre-pandemic market, only really reappeared at the end of last year, says Paul Finch of Beauchamp Estates.
Some buyers are looking to Mayfair instead, enticed by its wider choice of super-prime developments and newer private members’ clubs. Last year one of Finch’s buyers from Abu Dhabi thought they wanted Knightsbridge but couldn’t find what they were after so bought two apartments plus a staff flat in Greybrook House in Brook Street for £30.45mn. “It shows that buyers are product driven, rather than wedded to an area,” he says.
The average price per sq ft of a flat sold in 2023 in Knightsbridge, at £2,066, was 8 per cent less than its 2017-2019 average, according to LonRes, the lowest since 2013. In Mayfair it was £2,662 per sq ft in 2023, up 13.5 per cent on that pre-pandemic period and at its highest level for a decade.
“Knightsbridge is not the ‘bullseye’ of prime central London that it used to be,” says Will Watson of agents The Buying Solution, and predicts that prices will drop more this year. “Younger families, including clients we’ve had from Saudi Arabia and Jordan, are looking to buy houses with a wider footprint in the garden squares of Notting Hill, Kensington or Holland Park.”
Foreign buyers who will only spend a handful of weeks a year in their flat tend to prefer a purpose-built modern block with a concierge and hotel-style amenities. Top among only a handful of options is The Knightsbridge Apartments (also known as “199”), a collection of flats built in 2005.
Last week, a four-bedroom flat sold in the block for 11 per cent below the asking price of £12.5mn, according to Simon Barry of the agent Harrods Estates, who adds that they didn’t sell a single house in the area last year.
A report by Beauchamp Estates and Dataloft property consultants last year found that the number of ultra-wealthy individuals in London choosing to rent homes worth £15mn-plus far exceeded those choosing to buy them. Stamp duty and increased scrutiny into finances (such as beefed-up anti-money laundering regulations) were cited as factors.
In October, a four-bedroom flat in 199 Knightsbridge at £8,000 per week was agreed at £8,500, due to multiple applicants, according to Sarah McIntyre, head of lettings at Harrods Estates. “Most people want to be close to Harrods; schools are rarely discussed in Knightsbridge. They love 199, and also One Hans Crescent [directly behind Harrods] because of the security and the parking spaces, which are rare in Knightsbridge.”
It was after struggling to land any other property she liked during the competitive rental market of 2022 that Pippa Lowe ended up renting a studio apartment in Hans Crescent for “less than £450 a week”. But she is planning to move on. “It’s very convenient but I don’t know my neighbours; people keep themselves to themselves here,” says the lifestyle writer in her twenties.
But there’s a nice sense of community in Cadogan Square, says Audrey Foster. “They don’t allow parties in the [communal] garden but I chat with neighbours,” she says. Her two-bedroom mansion flat has been on sale since June, at £2.45mn, through Savills. “I’ve had some viewings in January,” says Foster who is relocating with her daughter to Ireland for her job in healthcare.
Rachel Vosper, who rents a two-bedroom house with her daughter near her eponymous candle shop, says her street on the Belgravia borders is also very neighbourly — but the area has changed. “I’ve been here 13 years, and it has lost its buzz since Covid. I blame the working from home culture and the end of tax-free shopping [for non-EU visitors] for the drop in people coming to the pubs and the shops. There is definitely more tumbleweed.”
At a glance
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The average price of a house sold in Knightsbridge last year was £5.27mn, according to LonRes.
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Knightsbridge accounted for 7 per cent of London’s 526 £5mn-plus sales in 2023; less than the market share of Chelsea, Kensington, Belgravia and Mayfair, according to Savills Research.
On the market
Apartment, Lennox Gardens, £2.75mn
A two-bedroom, two-bathroom flat on the second floor of a late-Victorian building with a lift, on the market with Strutt & Parker.
Apartment, Basil Street, £4.5mn
A three-bedroom apartment with nearly 1,750 sq ft of living space and two balconies. The property is on the second floor of a mansion block with a lift and resident porter. Foe sale with Harrods Estates.
House, Walton Place, £12mn
A five-storey, renovated Georgian town house with more than 3,000 sq ft of living space including five bedrooms and a full-length 27ft reception room. Available through Private Office by Hamptons.
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