The 3,800 London homes that would be hit by a wealth tax
We calculate the tax bill for Drake's east London pad. Plus: Notting Hill Carnival saved and London's biggest new park since the Olympics
Morning — the idea of a UK wealth tax has been gaining traction in recent weeks, as the government warns it’ll soon have to hike something to balance the books. The fact is, though, Britain’s wealth is concentrated in London — especially when it comes to property.
So we thought we’d do some groundwork for HMRC. Using property sale records, we’ve found at least 3,800 homes in London that have sold for more than £6m — the sort of threshold being floated for a wealth tax. And if the rate is 2%, as is also being suggested, it could mean some eyewateringly steep bills for the capital’s super-rich. £1.36 million in the case of one Chelsea penthouse owner. And £63,000 for rapper Drake’s Hackney pad.
How a wealth tax would hit London property is after your round-up below.
Plus: Notting Hill Carnival saved, London’s first new park since the Olympics, and fanning yourself with a packet of ham on the Tube.
What we’ve spied
🎊 Notting Hill Carnival will go ahead this year after almost £1m in funding was raised to improve security and safety. City Hall, Kensington & Chelsea council and Westminster council have pooled together to provide £958,000 for the carnival, which is scheduled for August 24 and 25. It follows a review earlier in the year that identified “critical public safety concerns” and led to carnival organisers warning the government that the event’s future could be in jeopardy without more funding to address the issues. Reacting to the new cash, carnival organisers said: “Although this support comes just weeks before the event, it is a much-needed and welcome commitment”. The Met Police, which has previously voiced concerns of a “mass casualty event” at the carnival, reacted with caution. Deputy assistant commissioner Matt Ward said: "We welcome the news that some additional funding has now been secured. However, we must acknowledge that with just six weeks to go a lot of hard work is still required to mitigate all of the risks identified."
💐 A memorial service marking 20 years since the 7/7 London bombings took place at St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday. Families of the victims and survivors were joined by politicians and the Royal Family at the event, which also included a wreath-laying ceremony at the 7/7 Memorial Gardens in Hyde Park. BBC London has been doing some excellent coverage in the run-up, speaking with survivor Dan Biddle, who was in the same carriage as one of the suicide bombers on the Circle line, as well as George Psaradakis, who was driving the number 30 bus when it was attacked.
🚇 TfL is offering sponsorship rights to the Waterloo & City line, in its latest attempt to generate cash from brand tie-ins. According to the Standard, TfL placed an advert for the potential deal to sponsor the two-stop shuttle service between Bank and Waterloo on LinkedIn, writing: “This goes far beyond a typical media opportunity. It’s full-line branding, from moquette seat fabric and signage to maps and experiential spaces, all right in the heart of London’s business district”. A spokesperson for TfL has since clarified that “no line or stations will be renamed” as part of any deal. It follows an increasing number of brand tie-ins on TfL’s network — in 2023, Bond Street was renamed to Burberry Street, and in 2024, Old Street became Fold Street in a tie-in with Samsung. Together, those two deals raised £500,000 for TfL. City Hall Lib Dems have been voicing criticism of the potential W&C deal and the impact branding will have on accessibility, with group leader Hina Bokhari saying: "This decision is a disgrace. Once again, neurodivergent and disabled Londoners have been sold down the river so TfL can chase corporate cash.”
Elsewhere in London transport: further sections of the Northern and Victoria lines now have access to 4G and 5G, and the government has paused the rollout of floating bus stops. London has 164 of the stops, which are designed to separate cyclists from buses, but they’ve been criticised as unsafe by accessibility campaigners.
🌳 London’s biggest new park since the Olympics has officially opened. Sir Sadiq Khan was among those attending the opening of Springfield Park in Tooting this week, which has been created as part of the redevelopment of Springfield University Hospital. The park is 32 acres and features a cafe, amphitheatre, fitness trail, play areas, ponds and 700 trees.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
Fanning yourself with a packet of honey-glazed ham on the Tube (TikTok)
Central line. 30 degrees. Spanish student group. Nightmare rotation. (TikTok)
When the Central line starts to feel like that scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (TikTok)
Getting a ride to the station from the local milkman (TikTok)
Breathtaking views while eating gelato on Camberwell Green (TikTok)
Police being called out to enforce rules at Brockwell Lido (TikTok)
A Pret on literally every corner (TikTok)
A series of London bus drivers navigating a sharp turn (TikTok)
On flat-roofed pubs in London (TikTok)
Ten magnificent London trees to seek out this summer (Londonist)
The Shard slashing the price of tickets for its viewing platform (Time Out)
Locals cashing in on Wimbledon (Reddit)
The Wimbledon dog locking in (TikTok)
Using Tube escalators as runways (TikTok)
From Mayfair mansions to Drake’s Hackney pad: How a wealth tax would hit London property
The accountants of London's super-rich may soon find themselves rather busy — there's increasing chatter about a UK wealth tax, a measure which would rake in a lot of cash from the capital.
Last week, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock called on the government to introduce a tax of 2% on wealth over £6m or £7m, after the welfare bill rebellion thwarted Rachel Reeves's attempt to save money through cuts to disability benefits.
If the government does adopt such a tax, then at least 3,800 property owners in London could automatically qualify, simply because their mega mansions and penthouses are worth so much.
Wealth taxes hit the rich in many ways — they're levied on financial assets, like shares, stocks and bonds, as well as the value of physical treasures like sports cars, yachts and art.
But the value of property assets also factors into wealth tax bills — which makes London easy pickings for HMRC.
We've arrived at our figure after examining sale records published by the Land Registry, which show that 3,888 residential properties in London have sold for at least £6m over the past few decades.
This is an underestimate, as there will be more London homes worth at least £6m which haven't been sold since the Land Registry's records began in the 1990s.
We've also not adjusted for house price rises. In reality, some older sales would probably now qualify for a wealth tax, once their value today is taken into account.
But the 3,888 homes we've uncovered offer a first glimpse at where a wealth tax would hit hardest in London.
The vast majority of eligible homes are in central and west London. Kensington & Chelsea has 1,616 properties sold for over £6m since 1996, while Westminster has 1,339.
But the madness of London property means some residents in less-central boroughs would also need to cough up under Kinnock's proposal.
That includes 368 £6m+ homes in Camden, 115 in Barnet, 86 in Merton, 77 in Wandsworth, 65 in Richmond, 46 in Haringey and 48 in Hammersmith & Fulham.
Other boroughs have only a handful— we found there was only one property sold for at least £6m in Enfield, Brent and Hillingdon since 1996.
That's not to say there wouldn't be wealth taxpayers in those boroughs — in practice, the £6m threshold could be crossed by all sorts of wealth, not just property.
But averaging across the capital, and taking a 2% rate, we estimate these 3,888 properties would lead to an average wealth tax bill of £80,800.
Here's some of the specific wealth tax bills we've estimated:
3 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair
Last sold for: £53,360,000 in August 2020
Wealth tax bill: £947,200
In August 2020, a residence at 3 Grosvenor Square – dubbed the “Ambassador’s Residence” in a redeveloped diplomatic building – sold for a whopping £53.4 million.
This Mayfair townhouse-turned-apartment is a stone’s throw from the current American embassy. It’s part of a former embassy compound that was converted into a 44-unit luxury complex complete with private concierge, spa, pool and even a replica of the White House Oval Office.
With a price tag that high, its annual wealth tax bill would approach £1 million – underscoring how a single Grosvenor Square home can embody a colossal concentration of London wealth.
Penthouse, The Glebe, Chelsea
Last sold for: £68,250,000 in October 2023
Wealth tax bill: £1,365,000
This Chelsea penthouse’s most recent sale price – £68.3m – is so jaw-dropping that its wealth tax bill alone would top £1.3 million.
The property is the crown jewel of The Glebe, a hyper-exclusive development of just nine residences built within a converted Edwardian school across 118,360 sqft.
Each home was lavishly outfitted by a different top designer, and the complex boasts over-the-top features like six private swimming pools and a giant two-ton retractable “guillotine” window – the largest of its kind in Europe and evocative of, er, the French revolution?
Apartment 6, Battersea Power Station Boiler House, Wandsworth
Last sold for: £12,382,860 in December 2022
Wealth tax bill: £127,657
Battersea Power Station’s transformation from a derelict industrial relic into a swanky address has minted flats like this £12.4 million apartment. Even in the comparatively “grittier” borough of Wandsworth relative to K&C and Westminster, a single unit here would carry a wealth tax levy of around £128k.
The wider £9bn development has been criticised as a “playground for the super-rich” — its rooftop “villa” apartments go for about £8 million each, and the on-site shopping includes Rolex and Cartier boutiques.
38 Avenue Road, St John's Wood, Camden
Last sold for: £38,500,000 in March 2019
Wealth tax bill: £650,000
This St John’s Wood mansion on Avenue Road illustrates the speculative frenzy of London’s elite property market.
It sold for £38.5 million in 2019 – nearly double its price just four years earlier – after developers expanded it into a mega-home with multi-level basements and deluxe amenities. In fact, the site was once an ageing, boarded-up house that kept rising in value even while derelict, flipping through multiple owners and gaining £20 million in just three years.
Now roughly 18,000 sq ft in size, the completed residence would face about £650k in wealth tax – a hefty bill, yet one commensurate with the extreme opulence (and investment potential) found on this “Billionaires’ Row” near Regent’s Park.
The Westminster Suite, St George Wharf Tower, Vauxhall
Last sold for: £15,000,000 in February 2015
Wealth tax bill: £180,000
One of London’s tallest purely residential skyscrapers, St George Wharf Tower in Vauxhall has been nicknamed the “tower for the toffs”, and its £15 million Westminster Suite shows why.
This 50-storey building (214 units in total) infamously includes zero affordable housing. Wealthy overseas buyers snapped up nearly two-thirds of the flats, often through anonymous offshore companies, turning the tower into a largely empty emblem of London’s housing divide.
For the owner of the Westminster Suite, they could expect a wealth tax bill of around £180,000.
1 Navarino Road, London Fields, Hackney
Sold for: £9,150,000 in September 2022
Wealth tax bill: £63,000
For evidence of the gentrification that’s gripped parts of Hackney, there’s 1 Navarino Road near London Fields, which sold for over £9m in 2022. Most sensationally, rapper Drake is rumoured to be the buyer, snapping it up at the same time as he was getting Netflix to re-air Hackney-based crime drama Top Boy.
This double-fronted Victorian villa was transformed into a six-bedroom party palace complete with an indoor pool, cinema, sauna, bar and gym. With an estimated £63k wealth tax hit, the property is an extreme outlier in Hackney – proof that pockets of extraordinary wealth have begun cropping up even in traditionally less-affluent quarters of London.
33 Bishops Avenue, East Finchley
Last sold for: £24,500,000 in July 2024
Wealth tax bill: £370,000
Bishops Avenue, which links Hampstead and East Finchley, is another of London’s ‘Billionaires’ Row’, but this mansion manages to stand out. The ten-bedroom property (replete with an underground swimming pool and private cinema) was swept up in an anti-corruption probe after UK authorities flagged it under an Unexplained Wealth Order, suspecting it was bought with questionable funds.
It turned out to be owned via offshore companies linked to the family of Kazakhstan’s former president, sparking a high-profile legal battle. The High Court ultimately quashed the UWO in 2020, citing a lack of evidence – but under a new wealth tax, this mansion would still carry a £370k charge. All that drama was apparently too much for the Kazakh elite — the house was sold for £24.5m almost a year ago to the day.
Penthouse, One Blackfriars, South Bank
Last sold for: £57,600,000 in October 2021
Wealth tax bill: £1,032,000
Our final tax bill involves another glassy tower — One Blackfriars, a 50-storey vase-shaped development by Blackfriars Bridge. It too epitomises the new breed of luxury skyscrapers redefining London’s skyline.
As we reported all the way back in June 2023, the building’s secretive penthouse deal fetched a record £57.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a UK high-rise flat. A similar valuation today would mean a wealth tax bill of £1m.
Like St George Wharf, One Blackfriars contains zero affordable housing — the developer even scrapped a promised public viewing gallery to make room for more sellable penthouse space. If only there were some other way of generating cash for projects like that…