Wealthy Indians buoy luxury London property
Wealthy Indians are steadily buying top-end residential property in London's most exclusive neighbourhoods, while rich Russian buyers, many of whom saw their assets come under huge pressure since the credit crunch, are showing less resilience.
Billionaire Cyrus Vandrevala, an equity investor, was one of only two people to buy a £10m-plus London property in December last year as the recession hurt ultra-high net worth buyers.
Vandrevala, who is married to the heiress of construction company Hirco, Priya Hiranandani, comes from one of India's wealthiest families. He bought a Holland Park mansion before Christmas for around £22m.
He told Wealth Bulletin: "The wealthy Indian community are not highly leveraged and are therefore in a perfect position to buy property at a hugely discounted rate. I am aware of other wealthy Indians looking to buy in London at this current time."
Charles McDowell, who runs a Kensington-based property search firm, said he has just had two Delhi-based buyers contact him looking for Kensington pads between £10m and £15m. He said: "There are still Russians buying, but not near as many as there were. Indian buyers have remained steady."
Tim Wright, head of high end agent Knight Frank's Kensington office, said that since the Lakshmi Mittal moved into Kensington Palace Gardens in 2004, many rich Indians have started looking for a London residence.
The so-called bilionare's row, where Mittal allegedly bought two more properties last year, is also home to the Indian High Commissioner.
Wright added that one reason that Indians may be buying more than Russians, who bought little over £1m between September and December last year, is that they prefer flats to houses as they tend to still have their primary residences in India.
There is a greater supply of flats than houses in central London.
Property Vision, a property buyer owned by HSBC, have stepped up their Indian marketing initiatives recently.
Peter Mackie, managing director of Property Vision, said: “Wealthy Indians are viewing the current economic climate as an opportunity to buy prime residential London property at levels they find acceptable. Since the political events in Mumbai, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of high net worth individuals showing interest in London."
Apart from buying the house, thirty-five year old Vandrevala has been on a shopping spree. He ordered the latest version of the plus $50 million Boeing Business Jet 3, one of only 10, and bought three mews houses to go with his new Holland Park home. He is also excavating the basement of the house to build a swimming pool and luxury gym complex.
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