Owners of high-end luxury houses in the UK are suffering a sinking feeling – thanks to George Osborne.
The Chancellor's dramatic stamp-duty increases a year ago have shocked the top end of the property market, sparking a price slump.
One newly renovated house in North London's prestigious The Bishop's Avenue now costs a bargain £24,995,000, a mere £9 million down on the original asking price.
And an eight-bedroom mansion in Windlesham, Surrey, has been reduced by nearly £5 million to £19.75 million.
But while wealthy owners will be feeling the pain as values tumble, their plight may provoke little more than a wry smile from the UK's average home-owner.
Property consultant Henry Pryor said: 'The seriously rich have worked out that buying and selling now costs too much. The stamp duty on a £25 million home has more than doubled to £2.9 million. After April, if the buyer already owns a home, this tax rises to £3.6 million.
'The London market, which contributes nearly 50 per cent of the total stamp duty, has been overcooked. Transactions are down by 50 per cent in the top end and prices are following.'
Estate agent Knight Frank said stamp-duty revenues in England and Wales declined by £630 million last year, about half of that decline in London and the South East.
Here's a Mail on Sunday guide to how some prices have suffered.
Windlesham Court, an eight-bedroom country house set in four acres in Surrey, has seen its value crash from £24.5 million to £19.75 million
Comedian Ricky Gervais and partner Jane Fallon have seen their luxury five-bedroom home in Hampstead fall in value by about £700,000 to just under £7 million
Nutbourne Park, a 212-acre country estate in Hambledon, Surrey, with a nine-bedroom mansion, is down from £20 million to £15 million
This ten-bedroom mansion in Bracknell Gardens, Hampstead, with cinema, gym and swimming pool, has suffered an asking price dive of nearly £6 million, from £24.65 million to £18.95 million
AND WHY LIFE CAN BE HARD IN THE SHARD
Tall story: But Europe's highest flats can't be bought
Conspicuously absent from the lists of London’s most expensive properties are the apartments planned for the top of one of London’s newest and most striking landmark buildings, The Shard.
When property entrepreneur Irvine Sellar first unveiled architect Renzo Piano’s vision for a 95-storey skyscraper 15 years ago, levels 53 to 65 were set aside for ten super-luxury ‘residences’.
Artist impressions released four years ago revealed the biggest of three duplex apartments was as large as an eight-bedroom house and would cost about £50 million.
The apartments were to be the highest in Western Europe – with 360-degree views.
On a clear day, it was said, residents would be able to watch ferries cross the North Sea. On a typical London day, it was NOT said, you could see little but the clouds.
But while 70 per cent of The Shard’s office space has been let, the flats are empty and all but two have not even been fitted out. Now, it can be revealed the apartments are not – and will not be – for sale.
An industry insider said: ‘They’ve never been marketed. No one has seen them. It is incredible, really.’
Why the apartments have not been sold is a mystery, although some believe it is because the owners would not be able to command the prices first mooted.
‘They have been retained by the owners for personal use,’ said one source, adding that the Qatari sheiks who financed The Shard visit the offices for meetings but no one has lived in the ‘residences’.
Others hinted that, having announced prices of up to £50 million, the owners found the super-rich were put out to discover the base of the building is not in fashionable Knightsbridge, but south of the Thames in less glamorous London Bridge – and withdrew, rather than lose face.
Twelve-bedroom Cedar Court, a Grade II listed building in Kingston Upon Thames, has seen its price reduced from £14 million to £9.75 million
Mulberry House, a Grade II listed, seven-bedroom Westminster mansion by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, is reduced from £24.95 million to £19.95 million
A luxurious and secure 1,950 square metre house in the exclusive Bishop's Avenue, North London, has plummeted in price from about £34 million to just under £25 million
Warren Mere, a picture-postcard estate near Goldalming, Surrey, has had its price cut from £8 million a year ago to £5.65 million now
The price of this five-bedroom town house in Belgravia, London, has been cut from £21.8 million to £19.75 million
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