Big surge in distress sales even before virus - top agent

One of London’s most experienced estate agents says there has been a very significant surge in foreclosure sales in part of the capital’s housing market - even before the Coronavirus outbreak began. 

Marc Schneiderman is the director of Arlington Residential, an independent agency that offers sales and lettings at the middle to top end of the market in central and north west London.

He says that clearly during the lockdown period that will be almost no new business, although he notes that predatory buyers are already on the prowl for casualties of the crisis - forced to sell at significant discounts.

However, Schneiderman believes there have been significant weaknesses in the market even before the Covid-19 calamity.

“Notwithstanding this current crisis, never before in my 35 years as an agent can I recall so many sales on behalf of banks and mortgagees in possession” he says.

“The property market has always been a barometer of the business world and reflected how well industry and retail is performing. For some time now bank foreclosures and mortgagee possession sales have been prevalent at the top end of the market.  

“At the end of 2019 my firm acted on behalf of receivers on the sale of one of London’s largest flats. This penthouse apartment had an impressive 8,342 square feet of space and a further 4,125 square feet of terraces. It overlooked Regent’s Park, had underground parking for seven cars and an asking price of circa £10m.

“This is one of many receivership sales that have taken place in recent months at the top end of the London property market and it is no longer unusual for us to be contacted by a bank who are foreclosing on a £10m, £20m or even £30m property.

“Sadly it is just indicative of the wider depressed economic environment in which we find ourselves as a country”.

Separately, Savills has issued its routine quarterly figures for Prime London - unusually ending them not at the end of the quarter, but at mid-March to reflect the situation before the Coronavirus outbreak.

Nonetheless, in an introduction to the figures, the agency admits that the virus has impacted the market and Lucian Cook - the agency’s head of residential research - says: “It seems inevitable that there will be a period of low transactional activity over the spring and summer months, so it will probably be autumn before we can understand what this will mean for future price growth.”