They are overpaid, over Trump, and over here. Ever since the 47th President of the USA won the 2024 election, rich — and often famous — citizens have been voting with their feet and heading to Britain.
You might find yourself shopping for bedding plants alongside Beyoncé, recently spotted at the Burford Garden Centre, or bump into Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes and their kids, enjoying dinner at Hana restaurant in West Hampstead, where the manager raved about their “warmth, kindness and appreciation”.
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have also been spending a lot of time in London of late, sparking rumours that they are planning to join the exodus.
The singer, supermodel and their children headed to the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal take on Ipswich last season, although season ticket holders may wait a long time to spot them again — Teigen’s verdict was that “soccer needs more goals”.
School-run mums will have a better chance of spotting Gosling’s Barbie co-star America Ferrera, currently resident in south-west London and spotted checking out potential schools for her two children in Barnes.
Trump’s mercurial politics are among the driving forces behind many of these high-profile transatlantic relocations, along with work opportunities at the film studios around London and in the West End theatres.
The great American invasion has two key destinations: London and the Cotswolds.
In the former camp we have actors Gosling and Mendes. The couple saw in New Year in a rented house in Notting Hill but appear to have moved on to Hampstead, where “delightful” Gosling has been causing quite the stir at a north London school when it is his turn to pick up daughters Esmeralda and Amada in between filming scenes for his latest movie, Star Wars: Starfighter at Longcross Studios, in Surrey.
Whether the Gosling-Mendes move from Los Angeles to London is permanent remains to be seen. One thing is certain: the starry couple will not go short on A-list companions from the other side of the pond should they opt to remain.
Writer/actor Lena Dunham swapped an LA bungalow for a north London house she shares with her Peruvian-British husband Luis Felber and their dogs, cats and pigs.
The couple married in 2021 at the Union Club in Soho. Dunham, creator of Girls, has since shared her somewhat quirky interior choices on Instagram and her latest TV show, Too Much, is all about a thirtysomething New Yorker who resettles in London.
Other Hollywood expats spending time in London are an eclectic bunch. It emerged just this month that 81-year-old Star Wars creator George Lucas has bought himself a £40m mansion in St John’s Wood.
Other recent arrivals include Johnny Depp, who has been based in a rented townhouse in Soho and a Sussex country mansion since his divorce from Amber Heard. He has been spotted dining at Cipriani in Mayfair, and has rented an art studio to pursue his passion for painting.
Just like native Londoners, a divide is emerging between those American arrivistes who prefer to live north of the river and those who appreciate the leafy charms of the south-west.
One of those believed to be setting up home in the north of the capital is Zoë Kravitz, who spent the summer touring Europe with her British boyfriend Harry Styles, enjoying date nights at Rita’s bistro in Soho.
The newly minted couple are thought to be living in Hampstead, where Styles owns no less than three period houses on the same street.
In September the singer applied for planning permission to merge two of the houses into a single property featuring a principal suite with four dressing rooms, a gym and a water feature in the garden.
Nicole Kidman is another north Londoner — she rented Boy George’s splendid gothic mansion by Hampstead Heath for a reported £65,000-a-month while filming Practical Magic 2 with Sandra Bullock.
The film was shot just up the M1 at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden as well as locations including The Hamptons, a development in Worcester Park, south-west London, which features American neo-colonial-style weatherboarded houses.
Fans of south London include Zendaya, who lives in Richmond with her British boyfriend Tom Holland.
London returner and Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner is another born again south Londoner.
She moved to the US after meeting American singer Joe Jonas, but later moved to south-west London with their two daughters during their divorce in 2024.
She said she realised she had to “get the f*** out” of America due to spiralling gun violence and the overturning of Roe v Wade, the landmark legal ruling which had guaranteed women’s right to terminate a pregnancy.
A quarter of the clients who have come to buying agent Camilla Dell, managing partner of Black Brick, for help buying a London home over the past 18 months have been from the US.
Most have bought period properties in prime neighbourhoods from Chelsea to Notting Hill, Kensington and Marylebone.
Many cite Trump as a reason for wanting a UK bolthole, but some also cite work, the strength of the dollar against the pound and their love for the British capital.
“They want to be in central London but also feel part of a community,” says Dell. “Proximity to a great high street, shops, restaurants and a park are important but equally important is the overall feel of a neighbourhood.
“Our US clients favour traditional period architecture or red brick mansion blocks over modern new builds.”
Most of the American clients who view houses with Marc Schneiderman, director of Arlington Residential, have budgets of £5 to £15m, although a handful are looking to spend £30m or more.
For families, St John’s Wood is a huge hit thanks to the presence of The American School, the buzzy high street and proximity to Regent’s Park, and the top streets include Carlton Hill and Hamilton Terrace.
“It is difficult to walk down St John’s Wood High Street without hearing an American accent,” he says.
Out in the country the uncontested first ladies of the Cotswolds are chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, the actress Portia de Rossi, who sold their home in Montecito, California, last year after deciding they could not remain in Trump’s America.
Their home is an ultra-modern new build, a circa 11,000 sq ft courtyard house built around a central, Japanese-inspired gravel garden. It is not known how much the stars paid for the house — reports range anywhere from £15m to £24m.
The house is set in 100 acres of grounds, which ensures privacy and has allowed the animal-loving couple to keep a menagerie of pets, including chickens and a small flock of sheep.
They are conveniently close to the local social hub, Soho Farmhouse, and have also been spotted at The Farmer’s Dog, a pub owned by Jeremy Clarkson.
There have also been an awful lot of tyre kickers spending time in the Cotswolds of late — Americans holidaying in the increasingly fashionable Area of Outstanding National Beauty and possibly checking out the area with a view to buying a home there.
Recent visitors to have been charmed by the ’Wolds include everyone from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to Kourtney Kardashian.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z are reportedly so entranced that they are in the process of buying a 58-acre plot near the village of Wiggington, which was listed with a guide price of £7.5m.
Buying agent Nigel Bishop of Recoco Property Search says that he has seen a 10 per cent increase in the number of enquiries from American buyers looking for a home in the Cotswolds, and specifically in the voguish north Cotswolds around Burford and Chipping Norton.
“Trump’s agenda is causing a wave of Americans — as well as Brits who have made the USA their home — opting to move to a more liberal country. For many, the UK is an obvious choice for the language, its international culture, travel connections as well as highly-regarded schools.”
So popular are the Cotswolds among US buyers that Elizabeth D’Allemagne at Butler Sherborn says it is now referred to as the “Hamptons of England”.
She agrees that most Americans want to be in the north of the region, prized for its easy access to London and proximity to Soho Farmhouse, Daylesford Organic and shops including the American delicatessen, D’Ambrosi, which sells posh ready meals from traditional Thanksgiving feasts to fried chicken and peanut butter sandies (cookies).
Family buyers are, of course, interested in schools such as Beaudesert Park School, with its forest school sessions and polo lessons particularly popular with parents of younger children, and the all-through Westonbirt School in Tetbury and Cheltenham Ladies College sought after for older students.
“The Cotswolds has become an increasingly strong brand all over the world, principally through social media but also film and TV,” says D’Allemagne. “To the American audience the countryside, golden villages and historic homes have become the essence of England.”
