Nigerians have been rated the biggest spending Africans on luxury homes in London. The biggest African investors in London’s glamorous property market are mainly from six countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and Senegal, according to a report on cnn.com/Africa.

Of these, Nigerians spend the most cash on property in the British capital, usually splashing between $22(N4.8b) and $37 million (N8.1b) on securing a property, according to luxury property agents Beauchamp Estates.

“Virtually all the transactions are for end use, not rental investment, which indicates that the African buyer market in London has significant room for growth,” said Gary Hersham, director at Beauchamp Estates.

The agents’ research shows that in the last three years, Africans have spent over $900 million on luxury residential property in London.

“The Africans who are coming into London now are Africans who themselves have worked for their money.

“They have grown in industry and are actually part of the exciting story of the African renaissance.

“It’s bringing to London the best of the continent,” Bimpe Nkontchou, a British-Nigerian wealth manager based in London, told cnn.com.

In addition to the homes being a form of intelligent investment, many of the African buyers see these houses as a way of maintaining long standing cultural ties with London, where they also want to educate their children.

The Nigerian High Commission in London calculates that Nigerian nationals now spend over $446 million per year on fees, tutoring and accommodation at British schools and university.

UK’s education industry experts, ICEF Monitor, revealed that there were 17,500 Nigerians studying in British universities in 2012 – about 1,000 more than the 2009/10 academic session.

Experts are expecting a continuation of this trend.