London’s super-rich are “major contributors to the UK economy”, spending £4bn a year on goods and services, according to new research that underlines the financial impact of the capital’s wealthiest homeowners.
Foreign investment in London property has become a political issue, with overseas buyers blamed for pricing locals out of central areas and leaving their homes empty in a city chronically short of housing.
Some 1,338 homes were sold for more than £5m in the “prime” areas of central London in the decade to 2013. At least 60 per cent of these were bought by overseas buyers, researchers from Ramidus Consulting, an economic consultancy, estimated.