The price of prime housing outside London surged at the strongest pace in more than a decade during 2021 as house hunters sought more space and made lifestyle changes because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Growth across the prime housing markets outside the capital averaged 9.3 per cent in the past 12 months, the strongest annual growth since 2010, according to property consultancy Savills.
Homes in the prime price bracket make up the top 5 to 10 per cent by value and are typically the most desirable and most expensive in a given location.
Properties in coastal areas, the Cotswolds and commutable private estates were the strongest performers this year.
Cotswolds country houses in the £2 million-plus market typically rose in value by nearly a quarter, amid rising demand from local homeowners looking to upsize as well as those relocating from elsewhere and aspiring second home owners.
Prime coastal markets, particularly Devon and Cornwall, recorded average price growth of 15.6 per cent during the year, driven by high demand and shrinking supply, Savills said.
The rise in prices came as Londoners spent a record £54.9 billion on property outside the city in 2021 after the pandemic caused the largest wave of departures from the capital in a generation.
Home buyers based in London purchased more properties elsewhere in 2021 than in any other year since 2007, when £36.6bn was spent, figures compiled by real estate consultancy Hamptons show.
Only the capital’s very largest houses, with at least six bedrooms, have come close to the country markets for price growth, Savills said, with price growth in prime central London generally averaging 2 per cent in 2021 and 3.7 per cent in outer prime London.
“In these markets, the rarity factors: whether a rarely available type of property; the most sought after locations; or simply the very best view, have combined with high levels of buyer demand and wealth to create pockets of extremely strong market conditions,” said Frances Clacy of Savills.
“New buyer numbers over the past month are running 1.5 times higher than at the same time in the two years pre-pandemic, suggesting that these trends will carry through into the early part of next year, at least.”
Looking ahead, Savills expects growth of 6 per cent in prime London neighbourhoods in 2022, up from 3.2 per cent this year.
The consultancy emphasised, however, that renewed uncertainty over the Omicron variant of the coronavirus could push that growth into later in the year.
Savills said prices had started to rise again for flats in prime areas, as people began to return to the city or looked for a pied-à-terre to use while there.
In prime urban locations, price growth totalled 9.1 per cent year-on-year, compared with 9.4 per cent growth in the prime markets surrounding cities such as Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Winchester and York, according to Savills’ data.
“Since the summer we’ve seen the return of strong buyer demand in key prime city locations,” Ms Clacy said.
“But the value on offer in village and rural markets, because of their longer-term underperformance, will continue to drive demand in these areas.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
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Scores
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Key facilities
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Dunbar
Edward St Aubyn
Hogarth
Company profile
Date started: January, 2014
Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe
Based: Dubai
Sector: Education technology
Size: Five employees
Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.
Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)
Conservative MPs who have publicly revealed sending letters of no confidence
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