London sales of homes above US$10m fell to 35 in Q4 2025 against 143 in Dubai

Sales of London homes worth US$10m or more fell to 35 in the fourth quarter of 2025, dropping the city to seventh of the 12 markets Knight Frank tracks, behind Sydney, Miami and Singapore, the agency reported on 4 February 2026.

The value of London’s sales was broadly flat at US$724m, up 2 per cent on the quarter, despite fewer transactions. Fewer deals therefore carried a similar total, which points to larger individual sales rather than a broad recovery in volume.

The global market moved the other way. Across the 12 cities Knight Frank tracked 555 sales in the quarter, up 17 per cent on the third quarter, worth US$10.3bn, up 20 per cent. The average price rose to US$18.6m from US$18.1m in the third quarter, and the year’s total of 2,164 sales was the second strongest since 2021.

Dubai made 143 sales worth US$2.5bn in the quarter, up 39 per cent by number and 27 per cent by value on the third quarter. It closed a record year of 500 sales, which Knight Frank described as just over three times London’s tally. That comparison is for the full year, so it sits on a different basis from the quarterly counts above.

Knight Frank said the most damaging aspects of the government’s reforms to the non-dom regime (the UK tax regime for residents domiciled abroad), particularly those on inheritance tax, were prompting buyers to look elsewhere. It added that owners of London’s super-prime homes were not selling up in large numbers either.

London recovered modestly at the start of 2026. In its report of 3 July 2026, Knight Frank put the city fourth for the first quarter, with 45 sales worth US$836m. In the same report Dubai made 193 sales worth an estimated US$3.43bn.