If you hear a Russian voice this summer in the lobby of a smart London hotel, its owner is unlikely to be on holiday. Chances are he is there for a property deal, leaving his family on the yacht in Sochi or St Tropez, says Edward Mermel-stein, an American property lawyer.rnThe demand for prime London residences has greatly outstripped supply since January 2009, except for a brief period last summer (see chart), when presumably the Russians were otherwise engaged. Cheap sterling and low interest rates brought buyers piling into the market, bidding up prices. In the past 13 months Knight Frank (kf), a London-based estate agency, has sold 15 properties in swish Belgravia for over ￡10m apiece, most of them to foreign buyers, says Stuart Bailey, who heads the firm's office there.
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