There are more than 2,000 homes in London currently on the market charging more than £10,000 a month for rent.
Wealthy owners have increasingly opted to rent out their homes instead of selling them, particularly those leaving the country before the scrapping of the non-dom tax scheme, property experts at Garrison Asset Management found.
High net worth individuals living in the UK with income coming from overseas were forced to pay tax on their worldwide assets under the changes.
An estimated 10,800 millionaires left Britain for good in 2024.
But, many made the strategic move of renting out their homes in order to keep hold of them as a “reliable, long-term” asset.
We found some landlords who were charging as much as £216,667 per calendar month on Rightmove.
That specific apartment was in Knightsbridge. It has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a wine cellar and views over Hyde Park.
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Tenants also have exclusive on-site access to leisure and spa facilities, a private cinema, a virtual experience room, a squash court and a 21-metre-long pool.
It also comes fully furnished – but you’ll need a £300,000 deposit to be considered.
You can have a look inside here….
For £108,333 a month, you could live in a seven-bed house overlooking Regent’s Park in the sought-after Hanover Terrace.
The 6,103 sq ft property was designed by renowned architect John Nash and has three kitchens and seven bathrooms.
It also comes with a Nordic sauna, gym, steam room and private garden, and there is no deposit required.
In Brompton Square, Knightsbridge, you could rent a six-bedroom and six-bath townhouse for £80,167 a month.
You’ll need a £110,000 deposit to be considered by the landlord.
It comes with a study, swimming pool, media room, two private terraces, a gym, a sauna and a garage.
If you wanted a slightly smaller property, this four-bedroom terraced house in Lancaster Road, in Notting Hill, is available for £60,667 a month.
It has three bathrooms, a garden, an outdoor kitchen, several balconies and a roof terrace.
The landlord wants a £70,000 deposit and a note on the listing about furnishings simply says “ask agent”.
At the lower end of the ultra-expensive rental market is this home for £17,983 a month.
The three-bedroom penthouse is in Blackheath, London and is 1,181 sq ft.
It has three bathrooms, a view over Hyde Park and the city’s skyline and is described as being kitted out with “cutting edge technology to suit the demands of modern luxury living”.
Who are the people renting these properties?
With such high price tags, it’s fair to say there is a pretty small pool of potential tenants for all of these properties.
Georgina Bartlett, the Central London executive at estate agent membership organisation Propertymark, said there is a “real mixture” of people looking to move into these homes.
She said some are senior corporate executives looking to relocate to London, and others who might stay in the city for between 90 and 120 days a year.
“All of a sudden, it makes sense for them to be able to keep an apartment rather than continue to stay in a hotel. People get a bit fatigued with the hotel lifestyle and prefer to have a bit of privacy,” she said.
“There are some tenants that would prefer to rent to try out London before they’re looking to purchase.”
If people have that kind of money, why don’t they buy?
Bartlett said a lot of the time, people renting these properties aren’t planning to stay in the city forever, so even though they could afford to buy, renting means they don’t have to worry about paying stamp duty each time they move.
“When you look at the entry, holding and exit costs of purchasing an equivalent property, even when you just take stamp duty as a cost, it starts to make more sense actually to rent even at these high levels versus committing to the tax outlay of a purchase,” she said.
Another reason is the running costs of these expensive properties.
She explained that these homes will likely require staff and maintenance, meaning upkeep costs are “not insignificant”.
Selling costs and the time it takes to sell can also put people off purchasing a property that they only intend to live in for a short period of time.
“Just look at all those costs and total them. It can quite quickly look like an expensive proposition just to purchase something when you don’t have an intention to hold the property for a long-term period,” she said.
How long are the tenancies?
As with standard tenancies, Bartlett said agents will normally agree a fixed-term period of at least a year.
But, she said that more often than not, these tenancies end up lasting around two years or even a little bit longer.
“If you look in other countries, actually it’s not the same emphasis that we have in the UK on buying, so people do rent with a more long-term view.”
How long does it take to find a tenant?
From a landlord’s perspective, it’s worth waiting for the right tenant to live in their hugely valuable asset.
Bartlett explained that they often make sure that references are properly scrutinised and financial requirements can be met.
“It’s obviously a finite-sized market and it is a different proposition entirely to what we would consider the more mainstream private rented centre,” she said.
“It’s much more about placing properties with the right individual as much as anything. It can depend entirely on what the property is, so it definitely takes longer to find a tenant.”
In some instances, she said it can take a few weeks or months, and sometimes it can take even longer than that.
Who are the landlords, and why don’t they live in these homes?
In some cases, the landlords are people who have bought the properties as a long-term investment holding.
Bartlett said that the London property market has a “global prestige” as an asset class.
“The phrase ‘safe as houses’ still rings true globally when it comes to the London market, so there are still people who want to invest and see it as a sensible place to put their capital and money on a long-term basis,” she said.
Other landlords might be renting out their property while they wait to see what will happen in terms of value over the next few years.
“And then there are some landlords where the initial purchase was always intended to be for their own use, but their circumstances have changed and then they have moved away,” Bartlett added.
“These properties are always better when someone is living in them, taking care of them and looking after them. So it’s a real mixture of people that are renting them out.”
