London vs New York: luxury homes in the capital are now selling at twice the price

London’s most luxurious homes now cost twice as much per square foot as New York's finest properties, despite the recent slowdown of prices in the capital's prime postcodes.

London vs New York: London millionaires are buying New York property at half the price per square foot they'd pay at home

Rex

Lizzie Rivera8 December 2015

Homes in London's exclusive hotspots are typically £1,000 per square foot more expensive than those in the equivalent areas of the Big Apple - largely due to the capital's super-prime developments contributing to significant price hikes over the past year.

At £2,194 a square foot, a large family home in Knightsbridge is almost twice as expensive as homes on the Upper East Side (South) in Manhattan, while a family home in Belgravia averages £2,031 a square foot, compared to £826 on the Upper West Side.

£25 million: a freehold 7,236sq ft detached villa in the Holland Park conservation area, W14, with eight bedrooms and a swimming pool.

£12 million ($18,052,000): an 8,000sq ft six-bedroom townhouse, steps from New York's Central Park

A large family home in Knightsbridge is almost twice as expensive as homes on the Upper East Side...

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While these prime property prices differ considerably, the lifestyles on offer in London and New York - and the population size of the two cities - are strikingly similar. The number of Michelin-star restaurants, museums and galleries is on a par, while there are 8.6 million Londoners and 8.5 million New Yorkers.

London has 140 billionaires and New York has 103. However, there are almost twice as many millionaires in the Big Apple, at 389,000, as there are in London, according to the new wealth report by luxury London estate agents Beauchamp Estates and New York firm Leslie J Garfield.

And this gap could widen further. There has been a seven per cent rise in the number of London-based millionaires seeking good-value top-notch homes and property investments in New York, and a surge of up to 10 per cent in London-based buyers seeking luxury homes in Miami and Los Angeles.

More than 120,000 British expats live in New York, with more than 197,000 American expats resident in the UK, mainly in London and the home counties.