London is a global city and we see people buying here from all four corners of the globe. As discussed last month, taxation has increased the cost of investing in London, but conversely, for many international buyers, the cost of buying a home or investing in property has fallen significantly, with the savings made by the widely reported fall in property prices accentuated by the fall in the value of sterling. The Financial Times recently reported that some prime London properties have been trading at 45% less in dollar terms than in 2014.
Whilst this has been positive for dollar based buyers, equally, it’s important to be mindful that with the pound strengthening in recent days due to potential political stability in the coming weeks (fingers crossed), some opportunistic international buyers may perceive London property to be less attractive than it was.
On the flip side, we continue to see a lack of supply of “best in class” properties in prime London, whilst demand appears to be increasing from domestic buyers looking to purchase with a long term outlook. As such, our view is that whilst we don’t anticipate prices increasing significantly, the market may be set for an increase in volume of transactions in the next six months or so.
With that in mind, if you are thinking about selling in the New Year, now is the time to call us to discuss how we can help to implement a successful strategy to ensure the successful sale of your property.
