The London property market has seen a challenging last couple of months from the introduction of new stamp duty rates in April and the EU Referendum in June. That said, there has been little change in prices. According to data experts LonRes, buyers are now paying on average 6% less for homes under 2m, and 10% less for homes over 2m. Buyers adopted a wait and see approach in the run up to the referendum. Continue reading “Latest London Property News – August 2016” »

Since Britain’s decision to leave the European Union on June 23rd, our economy is still waiting for the dust to settle. The Government’s swift appointment of Theresa May as our new Prime Minister is certainly positive and many of us now look forward to economic recovery. The pound hit its lowest level against the dollar in 31 years, the UK-centric FTSE 250 has swung like a pendulum and estate agents have reported a slowdown in activity. Continue reading “Latest London Property News – July 2016” »

• Sterling – the value of sterling will inevitably fall in the near-term, along with the stock market
• Exporters and financial services firms – will be in the forefront of the downturn
• Bank of England – expect to respond quickly – an interest rate cut of 25 basis points is a strong scenario at the Monetary Policy Committee’s meeting in July

Continue reading “UK EU Referendum – Result – June 2016” »

London is experiencing a new two-speed market: the top end of the London residential property market has slowed; however, the majority of the city is seeing a rise in values. The traditional top quarter accounts for two thirds of Greater London’s postcode districts experiencing price falls with Kensington seeing prices fall by 11.8%, 10% decline for Notting Hill, and 10% for Hampstead. Interestingly, if the prime central London postcodes are excluded, Continue reading “Latest London Property News – May 2016” »

March saw the first increase in 2016 in transaction volumes compared with last year. Solicitors across London were inundated with transactions requiring exchange and completion by the 31st March to avoid George Osborne’s 3% stamp duty hike. We believe this to be one of the key reasons sales volumes increased this year compared with a flat market in January and down in February. In addition to this some parts of prime central London saw double-digit declines in asking prices. Continue reading “Latest London Property News – April 2016” »

A return to economic growth, high employment, rising disposable incomes and persistently low interest rates are expected to keep house prices rising.Property information portal Rightmove reported a fall in asking prices of 4.9 per cent in Westminster, whilst instructions in Kensington & Chelsea saw an increase of 7.4 per cent year on year. New sales instructions in London Continue reading “Latest London Property News – March 2016” »

The Government confirmed that it will proceed with the proposed increase to Stamp Duty Land Tax when buying additional properties from 1st April 2016.

• New Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on commercial property is changing to the ‘slice’ system: 0% up to £150,000, 2% on next £100,000, 5% on consideration over £250,000.
Continue reading “The Budget – Key points for the Property Industry” »

All eyes are on price growth of the prime central London since the shift in the dynamic that we saw in 2015. Prices in prime central London showed a monthly change of 2.1% in December 2015 according to the Land Registry. London is seeing a high level of activity and supply is now beginning to outpace demand with a 20 per cent increase in instructions registered compared to last year. Continue reading “Latest London Property News – February 2016” »

“It is the variety of purchasers from all over the world and transparent government that we believe makes prime central London a stable market,” said Nicholas Jaffray, director of Jaffray Estates, a property buying agent in London, to IBTimes UK. He added that in the previous week, Jaffray Estates had taken on three new clients, two of which already owned prime propertyin central London. Continue reading “London property: Is it crash, correction or carry on as normal in the prime market?” »

Membership of the European Union (EU) presents the greatest uncertainty for UK real estate in 2016/17. We expect the UK real estate market will move into a new stage of the property cycle and will potentially face a number of obstacles: an in-out EU referendum within the next 18 months, new regulation coming into force, and a potential end to more than six years of record-low interest rates, Continue reading “Latest London Property News – January 2016” »