London Luxury Homes: 80% of Properties Listed Below Asking Price

Property prices in London are falling: eight out of ten homes are being sold at a discount

The luxury property market in central London is experiencing a prolonged downturn. Owners are being forced to lower prices to find buyers: in the most prestigious areas, property prices have fallen by almost a third compared with their all-time highs.

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According to a study by Coutts for the third quarter of 2026, 80 per cent of luxury properties on the market are priced below their original asking price. The average discount has reached 10 per cent, whilst in some cases the fall in value from previous peaks has exceeded 30 per cent.

Houses and flats in Knightsbridge and Belgravia have seen the sharpest falls in value, reports Property Wire. Here, property prices have fallen by 30.8 per cent compared with their all-time highs. In South Kensington, the decline stood at 26.9 per cent.

In the July–September period alone, prices in the most expensive areas of central London fell by a further 5 per cent. They are now, on average, 14 per cent below 2014 levels.

Buyer activity is also waning. Over the quarter, the number of new properties put up for sale fell by 14 per cent, whilst the number of transactions dropped by 9.1 per cent. The segment comprising properties valued between £2 million and £5 million has been particularly hard hit, with sales there falling by 22.3 per cent.

The market is under pressure from the fallout of Brexit, expensive mortgages and tax reforms that have scrapped previous tax breaks for wealthy foreign non-residents of the UK.

Despite the downturn, the market for properties valued at over £10 million remains stable. According to Savills, over the past 12 months, buyers have purchased 127 such properties for a total of £2.88 billion (approximately $3.75 billion).

Unlike buyers of more affordable luxury properties, ultra-high-net-worth investors often do not take out mortgages and pay for their purchases with their own funds. This allows them to be less dependent on borrowing costs and to continue making purchases even during a market crisis.

This story was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.The translation was also reviewed by the Logos Press editorial team.

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