Almost a quarter of London homes were sold off-market in the final three months of last year, according to broker Hamptons International. That’s more than double compared to the same period of 2019 – the final quarter before the pandemic – when under-the-table sales claimed 11% of total market share. It is also the highest quarterly figure since Hamptons began recording data in 2007.
Almost a third of homes sold for £1mil or more were traded off-market in the final three months of last year, the highest quarterly share since 2017. Real estate broker Charles McDowell, whose Charles McDowell Properties firm advises wealthy clients on London real estate, says high-end buyers and sellers value privacy over anything else, and prefer to not showcase their homes on public portals. As such, he said, most negotiations have migrated to other spaces, and namely, WhatsApp.
Anthony Payne, managing director at LonRes, echoed that point. “This is a discrete sector,” he said, adding that homes will be “just as quietly withdrawn if they fail to meet their asking price”.