Ed Mead

Is London’s housing market faltering?

  • From Spectator Life

Prime Central London has always been viewed as safe. It has some major plus points for the world’s wealthy – it’s on the Greenwich Meridian so can trade East and West, is an island considered geographically safe and geo-politically stable. Wherever you lived in the world you could stash a considerable portion of your wealth in this safe haven with the added bonus that, if a downturn were to grip your own country, you can relocate to London.

The relative global stability of the last decade has led to empty properties. The heart went out of Prime Central London years ago. One block north and south of the Kings Road exhibits some semblance of the old days but the street itself now resembles a kind of upmarket shopping mall with precious little individuality. The market here has stagnated over the last few years with movement in an out strangled by new asset taxes and changes to stamp duty.

Ignore changes to the Prime Central London market at your peril

But is the area on the cusp of a sea change? The swift introduction of wealth orders and sanctions on many of the area’s oligarchs is likely to make investors think again about using London as a safe haven for wealth. I’m not here to argue about whether the politics are right or wrong. I’m simply observing how it will impact the central London market.

Wealthy buyers don’t move into Chelsea or Kensington looking for space but to show off their address. This means that a drop in demand permeates every layer of the market and heightens the ripple effect elsewhere: if the top end starts to falter the consequences will be felt lower down.

Looking at publicly available properties in the £10 – £30 million range more than 20 per cent have seen their prices reduced and almost 50 per cent have been on the market for over a year.

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