London’s ultra wealthy have ‘moved out’ since Brexit, says top private jet dealer
Mega private jet deals in London have hit major turbulence in the post-Brexit era as wealthy buyers have deserted the capital, a top Mayfair-based dealmaker has said.
“It was a hub, I think its become a little less of a hub. There’s been a lot of international players who have moved to Europe with Brexit… a lot of the wealthy people have moved out,” said Steve Varsano, who heads up The Jet Business, a private aircraft showroom on Park Lane.
Client demographics have “drastically changed” since the vote to leave in 2016, he told City PM, and have been further influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as changes to non-dom status tax rules.
“The makeup of people coming to the UK has definitely changed a lot… you’re losing a lot of those international corporate executives coming here.”
The comments come in contrast to some forecasts made shortly after the Brexit vote. A 2017 report by property consultants Knight Frank described London as “without doubt the dominant city for the wealthy,” and forecast the number of ultra high-net-worth individuals would increase by 30 per cent over the next decade.
But numbers have since declined amid a UK-wide exit. Some 12,000 millionaires have departed the country since 2017, while the number of London-based individuals worth $100m has fallen 4 per cent since 2022.
“The war in Russia, you know, it’s obviously chased out a lot of the Russian population here and they were, they were spenders,” said Varsano, who sells private jets at prices ranging from $4m to as high as $85m.
“The war in Russia, you know, it’s obviously chased out a lot of the Russian population here and they were, they were spenders.”
Steve Varsano, The Jet Business
While Covid-19 caused a boom in the wider private aircraft market as wealthy buyers looked to avoid busy commercial airlines and airports, lockdown restrictions have had a lasting impact on the number of clients based in London.
“The Asian market, specifically, a lot of the Chinese, have not come back. I’d say half of the Americans might not have come back since the Covid restrictions,” Varsano told City PM
This has been compounded by government policy surrounding taxes on foreign visitors to the UK and those with “non-dom” status, which enables significant tax breaks for British residents whose permanent home is abroad.
Non-dom tax regulations have been progressively tightened over the last decade. As part of the Spring Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced plans to phase the non-dom regime out entirely from April 2025.
“The head people, the chief executives, the shareholders aren’t staying here for tax reasons, so they’re going and coming, going and coming. The problem is they’re not here all the time and they won’t reinvest here. So it is a bit of an issue,” Varsano said.
He added the decision to scrap VAT-free shopping for international visitors in 2021 had also pushed the wealthy to Paris and other European cities over the UK capital.
London private jet deals hit by Brexit
Brexit had a direct impact on the private jet sector as a consequence of changes to flying regulations and UK ticket prices.
The decision to depart altered rules surrounding ‘cabotage’, the right to operate domestic flights by aircraft registered outside of a country.
In other parts of the world, cabotage rights enable business jets to fly in and out of other countries. Since the vote to leave, UK-registered flights are no longer permitted to conduct internal flights within the EU without an agreement, and vice versa.
Varsano told City PM Brexit had affected dealmaking due to the added red tape and made it far harder for European and UK-registered jets to operate easily in each region.
Despite the challenges, he insisted London would “always be London” and attract the billionaires who make up much of his clientele. But, he said, it’s just “not the same” since Brexit.