Iranian missiles boost London’s prime property as wealthy flee war in the Gulf

After years of woe in London’s luxury housing market, those selling the capital’s high-end homes hope they are seeing the start of a reprieve – in the form of a trickle of inquiries from those looking to flee the Middle East.

Sam Edington, director of the property finders Edingtons, said he had observed a “marked uptick” in calls from both Middle Eastern buyers and UK nationals based in the region. That included one family who relocated to Dubai “a few years ago” but have “a growing focus on long-term stability and geopolitical security” and are now looking for a home in the capital.

London’s luxury property sector has been dealt a succession of blows, from the pandemic to the abolition of non-dom status. It’s getting worse: analysis published last week showed sales of London homes worth more than £5m had fallen almost 55% in February compared to the same month last year.

The figures, by property analysts LonRes, showed average sales prices in prime London postcodes had fallen 10% since the previous February, the largest fall since the global financial crisis in 2008.

Meanwhile, transaction volumes in Dubai’s prime market rose almost 25% in 2025, according to Savills.

Will Dubai’s loss be London’s gain? Becky Fatemi, executive partner at Sotheby’s International Realty UK, cautioned against regarding this as a long-term trend. London estate agents usually experience a spike in inquiries from the Middle East around this time of year, “because it’s so hot”, she said, adding: “It’s just happened two or three weeks earlier than usual.”

Joanna Cocking, head of private office at Hamptons International, said many of her clients who had been trying to sell UK properties while they moved abroad had simply abandoned their plans: “I've got clients who asked me to sell their house last year. When we gently touched base with them about a week ago, they said, ‘We've returned, and we're now living back in the house’.”

Peter Ferrigno, global tax director at Henley & Partners, agrees, saying that the more immediate trend might be for British residents to cancel plans to move to the Middle East. “I have a client who was in Dubai looking at properties,” he said. “He had just got his wife to agree that they were going to move there. And then about five minutes later there was this loud crashing noise.” It was an Iranian missile. Needless to say, the couple are staying in the UK.

Ferrigno added that the war would need to go on for longer before his clients who are established in the Middle East change their long-term plans. “Three weeks [of war] is too short to make those life-changing decisions,” he said.

Nevertheless, after almost a decade of squeezed growth, inquiries from those escaping Dubai are giving London’s high-end estate agents a reason to feel optimistic. “We’re all walking around trying not to look too gleeful,” said Cocking.

Photograph by Gary Yeowell/Getty Images