Mr Henry Sherwood, managing director of The Buying Agents, which focuses on properties starting at around five million pounds, said the crack down had helped dash hopes the war and sanctions might lead to a flurry of cut-price Russian sales.
But he added:"The more discreet don't want to have anything to do with them. Our buyers don't want to be associated with firesales - they don't want to get into a transaction that will never happen."One unsanctioned Russian failed to secure three lawyers before finding one willing to help him sell an expensive London property, a senior executive at a property development firm on the other side of the deal told Reuters.
Unprecedented Western sanctions on Moscow, the withdrawal from Russia of scores of Western companies and pressure on London's advisory companies to cut links with Russian clients have driven some Russian buyers to friendlier property hotspots such as Dubai or Istanbul. International buyers have accounted for at least a third of property purchases in prime central London locations in every quarter between 2011 and 2019, according to data from Statista.