The real estate arm of the Harrods department store empire has closed its final office in prime central London.
A statement on the agency’s website says: Harrods Estates is now closed and is not accepting new enquiries.
“For support with an existing letting or sale please contact the team via email at [email protected] or by phone to 020 7225 6506.
The business newspaper City AM quotes a Harrods spokesperson telling the PrimeResi magazine: “Earlier this year, Harrods Estates made the very difficult decision to close its operations.
“This decision has been made in line with the wider Harrods Group strategy to focus on its core proposition of luxury retail, catering for clients and customers within the Knightsbridge store and online.”
City AM also quotes Roarie Scarisbrick, a director at prime property consultancy Property Vision, saying the government’s changes to the non-dom regime played a “major part” in the collapse of Harrods Estates.
He says: “There is no doubt that [prime London] transaction volumes have fallen in the last couple of years due to lots of factors, but not least of which would be the non-dom rule changes.”
Non-dom status enables people who live in the UK to avoid paying UK tax on money made abroad because their permanent home for tax purposes is outside the country.
Labour’s pledge to scrap this status has prompted many of the country’s millionaires to vote with their feet.
Analytics firm New World Wealth and investment migration advisers Henley & Partners have issued figures showing that over 10,000 millionaires left the UK in 2024, a 157% increase on 2023.
Analysts cited factors including additional taxes affecting non-doms and other wealthy individuals as well as the growing dominance of the US and Asia in the tech sector and the dwindling importance of the London Stock Exchange.
