An Italian superyacht builder has become the latest in a long line of high-end luxury brands to open a new Mayfair retail space, despite concerns about rising taxes and outflows of wealth from London.
Sanlorenzo, which made €960 million in revenue in 2025, has supported Sanlorenzo Yachts UK in the opening of its new Park Lane outpost yesterday. The company hopes the premises will help to drive orders of its custom-made vessels, which range up to 74m in size and can cost over €100 million.
The shipbuilder’s chairman and majority owner, Massimo Perotti, told Spear’s that London remained ‘a hotspot for a lot of international people’. He added: ‘We chose Mayfair because it is a place like no other, especially for a super-luxury business like yachting’.
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Located on the Eastern side of Park Lane, a stone’s throw from luxury hotels including the Dorchester and the Four Seasons, the retail space offers a boost to the brand’s visibility. ‘It is kind of like having a newspaper advertisement come out everyday,’ said Perotti. ‘Once [customers] enter the showroom, it works as a lounge where you can sit, relax and dream about your yacht, little by little, until you decide to buy it – hopefully.’
The London showroom is Sanlorenzo’s second location in the UK; its first opened in Southampton’s Swanwick Marina in April 2021. Both are operated by boat sales company Ancasta Group, which holds the exclusive licence to sell Sanlorenzo yachts in the UK. Since the Southampton outpost opened five years ago, 30 Sanlorenzo yachts have been commissioned by UK clients, 95 per cent of whom were clients new to the brand. The company also has physical showrooms in locations such as Monaco, Mallorca, Fort Lauderdale and Singapore.
Despite reports of a non-dom ‘exodus’ from London and concerns about the consequences of scrapping VAT-free shopping for tourists in 2021, several high-profile luxury marques have launched new Mayfair retail sites in recent months.
In February, Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet opened a location in a townhouse on Clifford Street, which, due to its large size and discreet exterior, feels similar to a private members club. This was preceded by the opening of the world’s second-largest Rolex boutique on Old Bond Street last March.
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Luxury automotive and aviation brands have also committed to the capital’s most prestigious postcodes. Private jet giant Gulfstream unveiled a revamped Mayfair showroom in May 2025 and Italian supercar icon Lamborghini opened a London flagship on Berkeley Square in October of the same year. Fellow Italian carmaker Ferrari opened a lifestyle boutique, under the name Ferrari Style, on Old Bond Street last month.
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However, the decision to invest in a pricey London location is far from straightforward.
Despite the abolition of VAT-free shopping for tourists in 2021, the cost of ‘prime rents’ on Old and New Bond Street have since risen by 28 per cent, according to data from estate agent Savills.
Though international visitor numbers have recovered since the pandemic, spending by tourists has not rebounded to the same degree. International visitor numbers in 2023 were just four per cent below 2019 levels, but spend was down 19 per cent, according to data from the West End Company.
The so-called ‘spending gap’ is widest among some of the capital’s wealthiest visitors. Arrivals from Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE were up 39 per cent in the last three months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2019, but spending increased by just six per cent.
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This scenario has left some commentators questioning luxury brands’ decisions to invest. ‘If someone has the capability to travel, why they would buy in London is a mystery to me,’ said Flavio Cereda, investment director for luxury at GAM investments, who described the 2021 removal of tax-free shopping for tourists as ‘complete madness’.
For others, the appeal of Mayfair remains undisputed and is only matched by world-famous addresses in global cities such as New York and Paris. ‘Fifth Avenue, Avenue Montaigne, Via Montenapoleone, Faubourg Saint Honoré… Bond Street is in this small group of super top tier locations and will stay there, I expect,’ said Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at the equity research and brokerage firm, Bernstein.
While seemingly antithetical to business, appealing to window shoppers is an important consideration for many of these companies, Solca argued: ‘These businesses place a greater value than you would think on window shopping. It allows them to connect with their audience in a less transactional way, as it makes truly part of the local community.’
‘While some wealthy people have left London due to changes in tax policy and tourists may feel put off shopping by paying VAT, there is still a significantly wealthy population of residents and visitors to the city,’ Solca added. ‘London is one of the capitals of the world, so for any major player in international luxury, having a presence in the city is imperative.’
[See also: From Gstaad Guy to Supersnake: how social media finally went ultra-high-net-worth]
