A report produced by property specialists Wetherell, with a focus on Mayfair and the West End, has shown that the Middle East influence is intense in these areas. The statistics revealed that buyers from this region have been, and still are, purchasing 10% of all residential property in Mayfair year on year.
Wetherell indicates that in terms of actual GBP, in 2013, this amounts to £150 million of Mayfair sales, out of residential properties in the area worth a total of £472 million. Mayfair is a prestigious address in itself for wealthy investors, while also being close to Middle East and Gulf embassies, as Peter Wetherell, CEO of Wetherell, pointed out.
The report also analysed the intended use of the properties in question, which was usually either for personal use, or for investments in a family-owned business or an individual’s portfolio of investments, as opposed to state or pension/insurance-funded investments.
These latter investments of course play a vast part in London property investment, amounting to £4.4 billion across the capital, driven by funds owned by Middle East states or governments, or sovereign wealth purchases of iconic buildings and development sites. In fact, the report demonstrates that Middle East government and state schemes own nine of the largest development sites in central London, which would be able to produce 28,000 new homes.
The Middle East Abu Dhabi ruling Al Nahyan family has become the capital’s second largest landowner and investor in Mayfair property, with the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate remaining top for now.
Peter Wetherell puts the statistics down to upheaval in the Middle East region, and pointed to a pattern that has emerged over the decades, with the latest being the Arab Spring.
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