In 2001, when Chris Harvey joined the legal profession, he called himself a property solicitor. But for the past decade or so, he has been leaning towards the more Americanised title of real estate lawyer.

Harvey, the head of UK real estate at law firm Mayer Brown, said this is to reflect a business that is increasingly done with buyers from overseas. “We have become more and more international,” he said, “and so we’ve adopted these more international phrases.”