$1.5BN OF THE WORLD’S BEST HOMES

INTERVIEW | GARY HERSHAM – BEAUCHAMP ESTATES
London is, has and always will be a city that is the focal
point of purchasers' attention in the world. London,
because of all its safety factors is a magnet for the very
rich to come and live. In my 40 year career, I have seen
a constant stream of rich buyers coming in to London
and buying their homes throughout that period. There
have been one or two pockets of quiet, for example, the
most recent was the post-Lehman's period but if one
looks at what happened up to the Lehman's situation
in terms of sales over £25m there were probably something
like 20 sales in the year prior to that September
but if you take the twelve months from the following
March there were over 40 sales. So the answer is very,
very simple; I believe very firmly that neither markets
nor political situations, nor taxation will ever effect the
desire of the rich to buy prime central London property.
Does continued rhetoric about mansion tax (in the UK)
have any effect at all on the decisions at the top end of
the market
Well its not a question one can answer in one go. Certainly
there are going to be people who won't be terribly
happy with having to pay a mansion tax but with
stamp duty now at 12% for the top end of the market
(15% in a corporate envelope), will an additional annual
tax affect the value I think if people need to or want to
buy in London, they will understand that's one of the
prices of owning a house in London.
But the other thing that people [when they comment
on Ultra Prime property] don't seem to ever focus
on is 'what is the running cost of a £20m or £30m
house'. You have all of the ancillary costs of running
a house – not related to water, light, gas and electricity.
What a man has to take out of his pocket to pay
to keep his house in the way he wants to keep it with
food, guests, wine, staff, cars, drivers etc. I think you've
got to say as a general rule, a £25m property can cost
somewhere between £0.5m and £1m per annum to run
and so everything else pales in to insignificance.
With regards to France (Beauchamp Estates has
a Cannes office), has the relatively unfavourable tax
and general political climate affected the decisions of
UHNW buyers
There have been some very big sales in the South
of France. Of course there is taxation if you transfer
an asset. There's a huge amount of tax to be paid
if you dispose of an asset within a certain period of
time and I believe that period is now 30 years but
generally speaking, if you look at the time frames of
people buying in the south of France, it's not a question
of 'will I have to pay tax if I dispose of it', they're
buying it for the long term and will hold forever so
it doesn't really count. There are two types generally
in the top end of the market there, the Arabs
and the eastern Europeans, and they're not tending
Neither markets nor
political situations, nor
taxation will ever affect
the rich's desire to buy
prime central London
24 Feb 2015