Wealthy celebrities under the age of 41 – including Dua Lipa and Matt Smith – are among house-hunters who have helped fuel London’s booming mansion market in the past decade. 

Estate agents Beauchamp Estates have revealed that the average age of people snapping up ‘trophy homes’ in the capital has dropped by 12 years over the last 10 years to 41.

Among those who have bought luxury properties include well-known young actors and singers such as Lily James and Harry Styles – as well as Russian oligarchs, Middle Eastern royals and other foreign millionaire tycoons.

Lipa owns a Victorian property in Hampstead – for which she’s received permission to add an underground swimming pool and a library.

The Masked Singer’s Rita Ora lives in Primrose Hill – home to grand Victorian terraces and pastel-coloured Regency townhouses – worth an estimated £7.5million. And Styles has bought three houses in north London in recent years – including a £2.95million home when he was just 18.

Dua Lipa arriving at Narita International Airport on November 18, 2023

Dua Lipa owns a Victorian property in Hampstead

Rita Ora on The Masked Singer. She owns a property in Primrose Hill

Ora bought this home in Primrose Hill in 2021

Harry Styles first bought a house in 2012 for £2.95million when he was just 18

Styles paid more than £8million for a five-bedroom Georgian house in North London

Speaking to The Times, luxury property agency Beauchamp Estates said 54 homes priced at more than £15 million were last in Britain in 2023.

Sotheby’s auction house said that younger, super-rich buyers are looking for high-tech homes with features such as tennis courts which can be turned into dance floors with a button.

Marcus O’Brien – from UK Sotheby’s International Realty – told the newspaper that today’s buyers are ‘far trendier and less stuffy’ than before.

They want homes in popular film locations like Notting Hill and paintings by artists such as David Hockney.

Some luxury developments offer residents full-time personal assistants who find seamstresses for them, even at night, and help to create ‘bespoke menus’ – for pets.

Another has an indoor tennis court with LED line markers which change with a button to badminton, basketball or a dancefloor.

Meanwhile, Lipa lives in affluent Hampstead and had a high-profile planning battle when she wanted to add some alterations to her property.

READ MORE – How middle-aged foreign millionaires are fuelling London’s booming mansion market

Home to many famous names, the leafy borough long favoured by artists has meadows, woodland, and swimming ponds.

Dua bought the house for £6.75million in 2020 and was granted permission to dig up a basement underneath her back garden. The singer wanted a subterranean swimming pool hidden underneath her back garden, along with a steam room, shower, changing room and a cinema and studio. She also planned to revamp her home to include a library and drawing room.

Ora is reported to live in Primrose Hill in a historic home she bought for £7.5million in 2021.

Built in 1877, the previous owner of the six-bedroom house was the illustrator for Alice In Wonderland and Red Riding Hood, which was one of the highlights for the star.

Rita explained in an interview with Architectural Digest that the ‘main reason’ she bought the home was ‘because of the history’, adding later that she’s ‘always had an attraction to homes with an old spirit.’

She then happily showed off an ornate dark wooden room divider which separated her dining and living room, telling how the feature has been in the home since the house was built.

Dua also planned to revamp her home to include a library and drawing room

The New Rules singer wanted a subterranean swimming pool hidden underneath her back garden, along with a steam room, shower, changing room and a cinema and studio

As well plans for an extensive renovation, the songstress wants to chop down an ornamental maple and a weeping willow tree and carry out repairs to a traditional boundary wall

The tour showcased Rita’s light and airy living room, which featured cream sofas, cosy furnishings, a glittering chandelier and glass doors which opened up into the garden.

Over in the kitchen, there were dark wood cupboards with white marble countertops – and the room flooded with plenty of sunlight thanks to the expansive windows.

Also among those helping fuel London’s mansion market is Styles, who first bought a house in 2012 for £2.95million aged just 18.

The four-bedroom home in North London was a big purchase just two years after he signed a £2million record deal with Simon Cowell‘s label, after One Direction shot to global fame on X Factor.

Styles, now 30, added a drinking den known as ‘Harry’s Bar’, it was reported at the time.

Rita showed off her home in a guided tour video published on Instagram. Fans could see how she had decorated her rooms with cream sofas, a glittering chandelier and glass doors

The video showed how Ora’s home boasted stylish interiors

In 2019, he paid more than £8million for a five-bedroom Georgian house in North London, not far from his first property.

The Evening Standard reported at the time that the white stucco, Grade II-listed property was located in a ‘very exclusive, very prestigious address’.

The North London streak continued a year later, when Styles paid just over £4million for a third house in the area. The 18th century villa was reportedly not listed on the open market.

In 2019, Styles paid more than £8million for a five-bedroom Georgian house

Lily James, 35, reportedly bought a £3million Grade II listed one-bedroom house in London

Other wealthy celebrities who have snapped up London homes including Matt Smith, 41, who bought his first house for £775,000 soon after he became the face of BBC’s Doctor Who in 2010.

The House of the Dragon star moved into the two-storey 19th century converted church and decorated it with a purple velvet sofa and lots of plants. It is unclear if he still owns the property.

And Lily James, 35, reportedly bought a £3million Grade II listed one-bedroom house in North London in 2021.

Matt Smith, 41, bought his first house for £775,000 soon after he became the face of BBC’s Doctor Who in 2010