Three deals collectively worth almost £80 million have been completed over the summer with Gulf and Asian investors each buying multiple properties in London, The National can reveal.
The block purchasing reflects a rise in rental values, set against a large drop in the supply of suitable investment properties in the UK capital’s most expensive neighbourhoods in recent years.
Buying at least six properties at the same time also means the purchase is subject to a lower tax rate – 5 per cent instead of 12 per cent – as it can be classed as a non-residential transaction by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Two of the deals were struck in Mayfair. They involved multimillionaire buyers from the Gulf who bought apartments in Curzon Street and Conduit Street, valued at a total of around £67 million. The properties were bought as rental investments and long-term assets.
The third big deal involved an Indian investor who bought nine apartments in a block in Notting Hill for £11 million.
By comparison, there was just one bulk investment deal, worth £16 million, undertaken in London in the first half of 2025.
These latest investments are separate to a deal struck by property developer Nick Candy. He reportedly sold his Chelsea mansion earlier this year to hedge fund manager Suneil Setiya for about £265 million, with five additional flats included in the transaction.
The sale of Providence House, a Grade II-listed villa built in 1809 with the largest private garden in central London outside Buckingham Palace, is believed to be the most expensive house ever sold in Britain.
Try before you buy
In the Notting Hill deal, Beauchamp Estates sold nine of the 19 apartments in the five-storey Pembridge development in one go.
The development, part refurbishment of a Victorian building and part new build, is on a site that was formerly part of the London premises of James Keiller & Son, the Dundee marmalade and cake manufacturers.
The buyer, who works in the hospitality industry, originally tested the lettings market by buying a single apartment as a rental investment before acquiring nine more in a single transaction.
Rising rents
The latest bi-annual Millionaires Letting in London Survey by Beauchamp Estates shows that rental values for London apartments and houses have hit a five-year high.
The survey of London’s premium lettings market reveals that average values for houses and mansions hit £4,177 a week, a 67.15 per cent rise on 2025 when the value was £2,499 a week. In 2024 the equivalent figure was £2,715 a week.
Likewise the average lettings values for luxury apartments and penthouses has risen to £1,957 a week, up 15.12 per cent on 2025’s figure of £1,700 a week. It stood at £1,775 a week in 2024.
The most expensive luxury London homes rented during 2026 were a Mayfair house in Mount Street, let for £33,000 a week, on a long let; a Chelsea townhouse in Cheyne Walk let for £30,000 a week; a Knightsbridge apartment in One Hyde Park let at £32,500 a week, a grand townhouse in Notting Hill for £25,000 a week, and a pair of adjoining penthouses in Mayfair’s Upper Grosvenor Street both let to the same tenant for £15,000 a week. The Mount Street and at One Hyde Park rents set record levels for the past five years.
The number of applicants from the Middle East wanting to rent luxury homes in London has risen by 30 per cent so far in 2026, while the number of applicants from the US has risen by 20 per cent and Chinese applicants by 5 per cent.
Jeremy Gee, managing director at Beauchamp Estates, said: “For landlords operating in the London market they are seeing rising demand, falling competition and rising rental values. The capital’s premium rental market is being driven by wealthy tenants from the Middle East, America and the domestic UK market, who need a London base.
“The latest Millionaire’s Letting in London Survey data shows that landlords with well-maintained homes in sought-after areas are in exceptionally good positions and can command and achieve great rental values with the additional benefit of low void periods.”
The survey reveals a significant reduction in the number of properties available to let, driven by the UK government’s Renters’ Rights Act, property income tax rates due to rise from April 2027, increasing costs for landlords, and the changes in the non-dom tax status that have resulted in a significant number of professional landlords and individual luxury rental investors exiting the London rental market.
The luxury lettings survey provides an analysis of off-market and registered rental deals by multimillionaire and billionaire tenants in London, derived from a range of sources and combined with the agency’s in-house deals database and local market intelligence.
Beauchamp Estates observes that seven out of 10 London ultra-prime households choose to rent now, rather than buy.
Uncertainty
Further uncertainty has been added to the overall property market by speculation over what Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey will do in their first budget in October, including potential changes to pension and property taxes.
The main concern had been the rise in mortgage rates due to the Middle East conflict.
Now, there is speculation that the introduction of a mansion tax on all homes above £2 million – a burden which would fall heavily on London and the south-east – may actually be brought in at the lower threshold of £1.5 million.
Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said: “Anyone in a home whose value could reach seven figures in the next several years must wonder if they will be next. If the current speculation proves accurate, the government would be widening the tax net before the measure has even been introduced.
“Whatever bands are used, it will inevitably lead to more pointed negotiations between buyers and sellers and bunching below price thresholds.”
