Super-rich foreigners 'forcing the old money elite out of London's prime postcodes'

Only three of the current 30 property owners in Belgrave Square are British
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London’s “old money” elite are being forced out of their traditional local neighbourhoods such as Chelsea, Hampstead and Mayfair by super-rich foreign buyers on an unprecedented scale, a major new study reveals today.

Highly desirable central areas dominated for centuries by British aristocrats and top earning professionals from City banking and law are rapidly being turned into empty “safe havens” for international capital, it concludes.

Around half of properties in “prime” central London addresses are bought by foreigners, contributing to a 75 per cent spike in prices between the 2008 financial crash and their peak in 2014, although they have fallen back slightly since then.

The biggest ever research study of its kind found that this process of hyper gentrification has forced the newest generation of wealthy British families to consider moves to “below the salt” postcodes their parents and grandparents would have previously considered fit only for their social inferiors.

Dr Luna Glucksberg, based at the International Inequalities Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: ”The study shows that the wealthy individuals and families that live in London’s most exclusive areas no longer feel able to compete at the top end of the capital’s property market. Instead they feel like they are being pushed out of elite neighbourhoods.

“For the first time, this elite group are buying flats for their children in areas they never would have previously considered. Families from Chelsea are buying flats for their children south of the river because they feel they cannot afford to buy anything nearby.”

This in turn was contributing to a ripple of dramatic house price rises in areas such as Battersea and Clapham, she said. This process of displacement by sheiks and oligarchs was leading to feelings of “both overt and covert racism,” she added.

A recent study of Belgrave Square, one of London’s most blue blooded addresses of which past residents have included the Dukes of Kent and Devonshire, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Ogle and society diarist Chips Channon, found that only three of the current 30 owners are British.

Residents in what has been dubbed “Red Square” now include Ukranian billionaire Gennadiy Bogolyubov and senior Qatari royal Sheikh Jassim.

The results of the two and a half year study is being presented today at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference.

Ahead of the conference Dr Glucksberg said:“The implications of this are enormous. Locally, what this group is experiencing is a loss of control – something they are not used to – and, perhaps more importantly, a loss of community.

The changes to these neighbourhoods are completely redefining their character and residents feel they are stripping away the established local community.

“These are powerful individuals who are used to getting things their way.

"But if you live in a property next to one owned by an overseas buyer who rarely lives there or an international investor, there is little you can do to make them fix the gutter if they don’t wish to, even if it’s your house or flat that ends up rotting.

“Similarly, the study shows that residents feel powerless to stop the character of their neighbourhood changing.

"They argue that newcomers don’t care about the area or the community, and don’t send their children to the same schools. These are standard gentrification narratives but up-scaled to London’s elites.”

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