A private vault company in London has revealed it is opening hundreds more safety deposit boxes in 2026 to meet demand fuelled by rising gold prices and a surge in street theft.
Demand for private vaults has risen by 120 per cent year-on-year at IBV International Vaults London, said managing director Sean Hoey.
The company plans to expand its private safe storage capacity from 561 safes by 60 per cent by April 2026, said Hoey, adding that storage for gold was fuelling much of this demand.
The price of gold has surged over the past year. The precious metal was valued at £2,042 for one troy ounce on 13 November 2024 and the price rose by more than £1,000 to £3,195 on the same date in 2025, according to the Royal Mint.
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This high demand and relatively low supply of gold has been good news for companies like IBV which sell, purchase and store gold for their clients.
‘The rising gold price is pushing up demand because a lot of people want to invest in it, but they don’t want to store it at home,’ said Hoey.
He added: ‘We are unique here as you can buy the gold, store the gold, and then you can sell the gold. At other places, you have to go and buy the gold, walk out and go elsewhere to sell it. Here, it is a one stop shop.’
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While most of IBV International Vaults’ gold in London comes from the Royal Mint, Hoey said some international customers have more specific requirements.
‘There are certain people that want Swiss gold rather than UK gold, ’said Hoey. ‘Or, because we’re owned by South Africans, we get a lot of people from there coming to London who want Krugerrand.’
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IBV International Vaults was founded in 2004 in South Africa where private vaults are in high demand among HNW individuals, owing to personal safety and burglaries being a major concern. The country is placed 124th out of 163 countries on the 2025 Vision of Humanity Global Peace Index.
Vaults are also popular among collectors of valuable items, some being more surprising than others, Hoey noted.
‘A lot of people want them for A4 documents. Some people want to store handbags – they are quite popular at the moment,’ said Hoey. ‘My favourite thing is that some people have stored pokemon cards.’
Many clients storing handbags leave them unworn, Hoey added. Handbags, especially those from French leather goods manufacturer Hermès, are best invested in when unused or in good condition, according to Sotheby’s.
The recent rise in street theft in London, notably of watches in Mayfair and elsewhere in the West End, has led to more people storing their timepieces outside their homes, said Hoey.
‘There are a lot of people who come to switch their watch over every few days,’ he said. ‘Women tend to come in if they are going to an event to get their jewellery out. They will wear it to the event, come back the next day and lock it up.’
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For HNWs, privacy is a major factor in decision making, especially regarding possessions. For this reason, security at IBV International Vaults is the company’s main focus.
The process of entering the vaults alone is extensive. There is security at the door, after which ID must be shown and a fingerprint or iris must be scanned to access the basement. That leads to the control room, where a member of security sits behind glass built to withstand the fire of an AK-47 assault rifle. You are then led through a state-of-the-art vault door. The original three-and-a-half tonne vault door from when the building was a Barclays branch in 1945 is now ‘outdated’ for modern use. Only after all of these steps can you begin to access your personal safe.
‘There is no point in saying that you offer the highest grade of security if you go with a cheap company for safes,’ said Hoey.
‘Even if you give your key to somebody else, they are not going to be able to get in, because their fingerprints and eyes have not been registered with our system.’
While highly secure, privacy and discretion can only be guaranteed to a certain extent at IBV International Vaults. The business has been based in Stanhope House, a neo-Gothic mansion next door to The Dorchester, since 2020. Sitting opposite Hyde Park on a dual carriageway, it does draw some attention.
‘We have put very little signage outside,’ said Hoey. ‘A lot of people have no idea that there is a safety deposit here.’
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Perhaps the best-known vault in modern culture is the one at 88-90 Hatton Garden where up to £14 million in possessions were stolen in 2015. A memorable image from the heist was the concrete wall drilled through to allow entry – something which would not be possible at IBV International Vaults in London.
‘The walls, ceiling, and floors are lined with steel, which have been welded together,’ said Hoey. ‘So, this room was built like a ship.’
Flooding is a major risk in the UK capital. More than 50,000 basement properties are at risk of flash flooding as a result of climate change, said Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in 2025.
The vault is protected from much more than water. ‘The deposit room is like a tin box within a building because if there was a fire outside it would not be able to get in,’ said Hoey.
‘We’ve got a fire system where it sucks the oxygen out of the air, so a fire would not survive here anyway,’ he added.
