Prime central London markets in the Kensington, Notting Hill (pictured) and Holland Park areas have seen both prices and transactions rising steadily over the last 12 months, with overseas buyers largely being responsible for the upward trends.
Nick Crayson of London property specialists Craysons, said: "Prices have risen 7.9 percent in the last 12 months across our area, with homes in Kensington, Westbourne Grove and Bayswater performing particularly well. Here prices per square foot are now over 30 percent higher than in 2010. In the first half of 2013 there were 229 properties launched per month, a 127 percentrise on the 101 properties per month launched in the first half of 2012.”
Crayson noted that the rise has been greater for more expensive properties, with a 290 percent rise in the number of properties reaching the market between £2 million and £5 million; and a rise of over 300 percent for properties priced at more than £5 million.
"The main driver of demand at these top levels of the market continues to be overseas buyers. The days of banker bonuses driving the central London market are gone. The global economy has a much greater influence on the prime London market than the UK economy, and London is home to more residents worth more than US$3 million than any other city in the world, and has the third highest number of billionaires, behind New York and Moscow.”
Crayson added that many of these overseas buyers are already living in the U.K. Others travel to the U.K. to buy, or use a representative who is based in the U.K. Over the past 12 months, more than 70 percent of Crayson properties have sold to foreign buyers.
“One size fits all is not an option in this market and we believe that the fact that, this year, every house we have sold has been at our original guide price or above, bears testament to this philosophy," he added.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@allproperty.com.sg
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