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Central London property, traditionally the jewel in the UK’s housing market, hasn’t escaped the general slowdown faced by the property market as a whole. Growth for prime city property has fallen to its lowest levels since July 2005, so although prices are still on the rise, the rises are certainly far from spectacular.
The turnaround in market conditions is quite striking - you only have to go back to early summer for what was the strongest market in 20 years, now things are cooling off just as quickly as they heated up.
Exceptions are to be found however, but admittedly they are few and far between, and somewhat on the expensive side. Properties in the five million pound plus bracket have continued to out-perform the general market, and are still showing gains of 4 to 5 percent per quarter.
Lesser, but still substantial, gains have been made by properties that break the magic million pound mark. So, while the general trend is a softening of the market, with decreasing prices, it seems that those in the top-bracket are still getting good returns from their property. The rich get richer still applies, it would appear.
Prime central London property is usually somewhat isolated from the market conditions as a whole, as it will generally see much greater demand than most other areas. With this property too showing that it is beginning to be effected by the downturn, experts are saying that it is a signal that the slowdown is very real, and that it is set to continue. |
