Through 2025, London's super-prime market saw a distinctive shift. A wave of long-resident non-domiciled owners sold their principal UK residences, responding to the abolition of the remittance basis and the wider tax reforms affecting non-doms. Many of these sellers did not leave the London property market altogether. They retained a presence in the city, but at a lower price point, often acquiring smaller homes in the £7 million to £10 million range rather than the £15 million-plus properties they were exiting.
Speak to GMG about releasing equity from your UK property. Donald Klip, Co-Founder and CIO, Global Mortgage Group.
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At the same time, a new generation of international buyers has stepped into the space these sellers vacated. This is not a market in retreat. Beauchamp Estates' annual survey of London transactions above £15 million describes 2025 as a year of resilient, selective activity at the very top of the market, with demand now focused on quality, convenience and long-term value rather than the tax planning considerations that shaped the previous decade of ownership.
Why This Shift Creates a Financing Need, Not Just a Transaction
Every non-dom exit sale creates at least two financing questions. The seller downsizing into a smaller London home often needs to bridge the gap between the sale of their existing property and the purchase of the new one, particularly when timelines do not align, or when part of the proceeds from the original sale are held offshore and take time to repatriate. The buyer stepping into the market, meanwhile, is frequently structuring their purchase through a trust, a family investment company or an offshore holding vehicle for reasons entirely separate from the old non-dom remittance rules, such as succession planning, asset protection, or simply the structure their family office already uses globally.
"The non-dom story gets told as a tax story, and it is one. But underneath it is a financing story that most people miss. Sellers need short-term bridging to manage the gap between transactions. Buyers need a lender who can underwrite a purchase held through a BVI company or a Jersey trust without treating that structure as a red flag rather than a normal feature of how international wealth is held."
- Donald Klip, Co-Founder and CIO, Global Mortgage Group
What Has Actually Changed for Financing Purposes
The end of the remittance basis and its replacement with a residence-based regime changes how and when UK-resident non-doms are taxed on foreign income and gains, but it does not, on its own, change UK mortgage lending criteria. What it has changed is buyer behaviour: shorter intended holding periods for some owners, more scrutiny of total cost of ownership including tax, and a greater willingness among family offices to hold UK property through structures optimised for the new regime rather than the old one.
For a lender, this means underwriting has to keep pace with structures that did not exist, or were rare, a decade ago. GMG's approach is to treat the ownership vehicle as a design choice to be understood and accommodated, not an obstacle, structuring bridging facilities against trusts, corporate holding structures and family investment companies as a matter of course, with underwriting built around the underlying beneficial owner's global financial position.
What Non-Dom Sellers and Buyers Should Check Before Financing
- Whether sale proceeds are held onshore or offshore, and how quickly they can be repatriated or deployed
- Whether the new purchase will be held in the same structure as the old property, or a different one
- Whether existing lenders will finance a purchase through a trust or offshore company, or whether a specialist facility is needed
- The realistic timeline gap between selling one property and completing on the next
About Global Mortgage Group
Global Mortgage Group (GMG) is a Singapore-headquartered cross-border real estate finance firm operating across 23+ jurisdictions, specialising in equity release, bridging loans and structured property finance for international property owners. GMG works with private clients, family offices and their advisers to unlock capital held in prime residential real estate.
Donald Klip, Co-Founder and CIO
