The Park Crescent defies London property woes to generate £60m in sales after launch to market

Around £60m (€66m, $74m) of sales have so far been agreed at The Park Crescent, a super-prime property project near London's Regent's Park, the developer has announced.

Amazon Property said it is rolling out the 20 homes at The Park Crescent in three phases. The first phase of eight properties has 100% sold out, it said, for price tags between £3.95m and £17.95m. The whole development is estimated to be worth £200m.

The Park Crescent, finished in 1820, was designed by the Georgian architect John Nash, among whose significant body of work is the remodelling of Buckingham Palace and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

During the late 20th century, many of the crescent's former homes were turned into offices. They were purchased by Amazon Property in 2013 and turned back into homes.

Of the eight homes sold, most were picked up by domestic buyers, which Amazon called "super-downsizers" because they sold larger homes elsewhere to purchase at The Park Crescent. There were also purchases made by buyers from the United Arab Emirates.

"For our phase two release we anticipate significant interest from British families relocating from north-west London, and buyers from continental Europe and the Middle East," said Chris Lanitis, director at Amazon Property.

"Affluent north-London-based downsizers and buyers from the Middle East drove our phase one sales. With the repositioning of pound sterling against the dollar, we anticipate that our phase two release will continue to be driven by domestic downsizers, but could also see a rise in interest from dollar-linked overseas buyers from the Middle East and Asia."

The super-prime market has been hit by a number of tax hikes. Stamp duty on expensive homes was raised significantly at the end of 2014. Then in April 2016, the Treasury put a 3% surcharge on basic stamp duty rates for purchases of additional properties.

Other changes include the introduction of capital gains tax for foreign property investors and from April 2017 making non-doms, who have been resident in the UK for a long time, pay inheritance tax.

Uncertainty surrounding Brexit compounded the effect of the tax changes, which had weakened demand at the top of the property market. But the sharp fall in sterling against the dollar since the vote to leave the EU on 23 June is fuelling overseas investor interest again.