Prime London prices down thanks to Brexit threat and global uncertainty

Savills says prices of homes in prime areas of London dipped in the first quarter of 2016 because of economic uncertainty across the world and continued concerns over a possible UK departure from the EU.

The agency says values across the whole of prime London slipped by an average of 0.3 per cent in the three months to the end of March - that’s today - but Savills insists there continues to be a distinction between the higher value, discretionary prime central London markets and the more domestic, needs-based outer prime London locations.

In the most expensive markets of prime central London prices fell by 0.8 per cent in the quarter, which leaves values at the very top end of the market a total 6.7 per cent below their 2014 peak - before George Osborne’s reform of stamp duty costs just before Christmas 2014, which increased the amount payable on the most expensive homes.

By contrast, Savills says, in the less expensive and more domestic outer prime London housing markets - from Richmond and Wimbledon, though Battersea and Wandsworth in the south and west, and Islington, Wapping and Canary Wharf in the north and east - prices remained flat in the first quarter of this year, having risen between 2.6 and 4.2 per cent over the past 12 months.

Notably, price growth across all prime London markets has been slower than the mainstream over the past three years.  

This is because the lower value outer London markets were slower to recover post downturn, have benefited from stamp duty reform and remain more accessibly priced.