Sectors of prime London property market seeing sales and price recovery
The gap between initial asking prices and sale prices in the prime central London property market is narrowing as the sector begins to recover from the effect of stamp duty change introduced in 2014. The latest analysis shows that while prices in prime central London were down 1% on an annual basis
Published -
Nov 10, 2017 5:08 AM
The gap between initial asking prices and sale prices in the prime central London property market is narrowing as the sector begins to recover from the effect of stamp duty change introduced in 2014. The latest analysis shows that while prices in prime central London were down 1% on an annual basis in the third quarter of 2017, they were up 4% compared to the previous quarter. The figures from residential data and analytics firm LonRes shows that across all three prime areas, discount on initial asking price was down from 9.1% to 8.5% on an annual basis. In prime central London buyers negotiated an average of 10.3% off initial asking price in the third quarter compared to 11.1% in the third quarter of 2016 and the number of properties reduced in price across all prime areas dropped from 47% in the first quarter of 2017 to 43% in the third quarter. The number of properties sold in prime central London between January and September 2017 was 3% higher than same time last year but 1% down in the third quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter in 2016. The strongest activity was seen in the prime central London market over £1 million with a 15% annual increase in sales over first nine months of 2017. Sales under £1million, however, were 28% lower than in 2016 but distorted by investors rushing to beat stamp duty changes which came into force in April 2016. Comparing the third quarter of 2017 with the same quarter of 2016 shows a 7% fall in transactions under £1 million. The LonRes prime London lettings index recorded a 1% rise in values over the third quarter of 2017 compared to the previous quarter. The prime fringe market saw rents increase by 2.5% quarter on quarter and 1.8% year on year while prime London and prime central London recorded annual falls of 1.6% and 1.8% respectively. On an annual basis the number of new instructions fell by 4% over the third quarter of 2017, with 23% fewer homes on the market to let compared with the same period a year ago. Overall the number of properties let across LonRes prime areas rose by 5% in the third quarter year on year. Prime central London was the only area to see lets fall, down by 3% year on year. Prime London and prime fringe rose by 6.9% and 10.3% respectively.
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