Close to £1bn worth of property deal activity took place in the post-election
dash to complete before luxury house prices rocket

One agent describes it as a “golden deals day”. Another says his mobile phone
lit up like a Christmas tree as the results started coming in.

As far as the high-end property industry is concerned, last week’s General
Election produced the sweetest possible outcome, reviving a flagging market
and unleashing a sudden torrent of deals.

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In the UK, almost £1bn of luxury property has changed hands or been the
subject of “serious offers” in the past seven days and that’s just the
deals the agents – usually a discreet crowd – are talking about.

Giles Hannah, head of residential at Christie’s International, said: “Ultra
high networth families from around the world were waiting for the election
and very concerned by the political outcome.

“Now (NYSE: DNOW – news) they see London as the number one spot in the world to invest and live
in. Just a few hours after the result had become obvious I was flooded with
enquiries to buy here.”

Elsewhere in the country, the trade in £1m-plus houses took off, driven as
much by sentiment the lifting of the threat
of a mansion tax.

Queen’s House in Hampshire, in 13.23 acres of land. Price on
application. On the market since the election with Knight Frank.

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The 2014 luxury market lull
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After a decade of rapid price growth – punctuated by a brief dip during the
financial crisis of 2008 the luxury property market finally slowed in the
second half of 2014, thanks in part to the uncertainty surrounding the
election.

Vendors took their homes off the market until after the vote and many family
townhouses and penthouse apartments were rented instead of sold.

Buyers carried on window shopping but refused to commit, worried that a
Labour-led government would limpose an annual mansion tax on homes worth
more than £2m.

Only last week a report from Lonres – the London property research company –
found that nearly 40pc of townhouses, apartments and mansions on the market
in the affluent core of the capital were sold below their advertised price
in the first three months of this year.

Luxury sales in London, one of the leading global cities, dropped 1pc in 2014
according to a report by the property group and auctioneers, Christie’s, and
those increasingly desperate vendors committed to selling, started to slash
their prices, right up to election night.

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The post-election luxury splurge
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However, at 10pm on May 7, as the polling stations closed and the result of
the exit poll was announced, the market was turned on its head as wealthy
property buyers got on the phone to their agents and solicitors, trying to
force through deals to avoid the inevitable post-election spike in prices.

It was the second spike in luxury sales in six months – both the result of
goings-on at Westminster.

George Osborne’s overhaul of stamp duty in December sparked a surge in sales
as buyers tried to force through sales to avoid high fees on property worth
more than £937,000

The industry is expecting the boost the election boost to last rather longer.

As recent research from Hamptons International has shown, any general election
will bring about a 15 per cent rise in transactions across the entire
housing market, but this time the impact on the high-end market will be much
greater, said Peter Wetherell, managing director of Wetherell.

“This will go down as luxury residential history as another golden deals day
for agents across the best addresses in the capital and home counties.”

The living room bar overlooking the City of London (LSE: CIN.L – news) from the Heron.

The central London specialist processed around £30m of deals in the 24 hours
immediately after the election and launched one £3.9m apartment onto the
market earlier this week a 2,056sq ft flat on the 31st floor of the City’s
Heron building.

Views from the Heron.

Rival agent Beauchamp Estates has also been busy processing deals. “Friday May
8 was bedlam. My mobile lit up like a Christmas tree from the early hours,”
said managing director Gary Hersham:

He has this week finalised the sale of a £20m home in the West End that was
not budging before the election.

“This was a very welcome result. We will now see property activity in prime
central London return to previous levels, if not surpass them, as delayed
and pent-up activities are given the green light.”

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The bankers are back
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Top property agents, investors and lawyers are not the only ones breathing a
sigh of relief after the Conservative majority win.

Bankers and financiers should also benefit. Under a Government that is
unlikely to cap bonuses, apartments in newbuild towers with quick access to
the City are expected to sell fast.

Views from the balcony of a penthouse in One Commercial Street.

With this in mind, the developer Redrow (LSE: RDW.L – news) launched a new penthouse collection at
One Commercial Street in the immediate aftermath of the election, with
starting prices from £2.75m.

The Mellier, a car showroom-turned-luxury residential apartment complex in
Mayfair, followed suit. Dubbed the largest new apartments in London – by
room dimension and ceiling height – the flats range in price from between
£18m and £30m and went on sale this week.

The living room of one of the apartments in the Mellier in Mayfair.

Becky Fatemi, founder of Rokstone Properties, in Maryelbone, has dealt with
offers and sales worth about £65m since the election, including a £20m
penthouse in Belgravia and a £2.2m flat in Duke Street in Mayfair. On Monday
she was instructed on a £3.45m flat in Knightsbridge.

Interested buyers have come out of the woodwork from all over the world, she
said, including a Lebanese buyer who offered on a South Kensington house and
a Saudi family interested in St John’s Wood.

“We will now see three big waves of sales hitting the London marketplace, the
first wave is happening now and will continue over into next week which will
be a stampede of end user buyers frantically pushing to get properties
exchanged before vendors decide to increase asking prices as a result of the
election,” said Ms Fatemi.

She added that gazundering – when purchasers in reduce their offers at the
point of sale – is now turning into gazumping as demand returns.

The roof terrace of a £14.25m townhouse for sale on Wilton Street in
Belgravia.

Luxury residential developer Residence One has seen a big increase in interest
from buyers at the higher end of the market. Its current project, a
six-bedroom, Grade-II listed townhouse in Belgravia, worth £14.25m, was
taken off the market in the run-up to the election. Launched immediately
after the result the agents racked up five viewings in 24 hours.

Ben Wilson, director of Residence One, said: “This is a highly positive,
albeit unexpected result, particularly for the property market, which has
been fraught with uncertainty for months in the run up to the election… We
have already seen an immediate spike in interest from buyers at the luxury
end of the market, having conducted a number of viewings on Friday.”

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Life outside luxury London
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But there is also luxury life outside the capital. Fine and Country have just
advertised a £2.5m Victorian mansion in Leamington Spa, while Knight Frank
is marketing Baston Hall in Worcestershire – a sports estate worth £3.25m.

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The Cotswolds’ property market is buzzing again, too. The Old Forge near
Cirencester is new on the market, as is the White House (not that one), a
£2.2m Georgian home in Hampshire (also with Knight Frank). Its cellar was an
Air Raid Precautions HQ during the Second World War.

Some commentators are worried that this new boom will simply inflate prices,
making it even harder for all but the super-wealthy to get on the central
London property ladder. But for most of the industry, David Cameron’s return
to Downing Street is simply very good news.

“We are in a golden period for residential in high end London, which buyers
should quickly take advantage of, as we are predicting that the amount of
property available will dramatically diminish,” said Lisa Hollands, managing
director of the residential practice at CBRE.