Russian oligarchs, Middle Eastern oil barons and billionaire Chinese entrepreneurs have been on a spending spree on London real estate over the past three decades, snapping up trophy homes and high-end commercial property.
The number of prime central London residential sales was down 30% between March and May compared with last year, though still up on pre-pandemic levels, according to property data firm LonRes. "Russians aren't buying and they are not selling, not necessarily because they don't want to in some instances, but because they probably can't or it might be sensible to hope the ... dust settles," he said.
At the beginning of the war, "we had people ringing up saying: 'Have you got any Russians selling?'," he said. Russian tenants including students are also finding it hard to transfer funds due to sanctions, forcing them to withdraw from the market in London, said Marc von Grundherr, director at Benham & Reeves.