Prices and sales volumes both improving in London - agency

The number of offers agreed on homes priced below £1m since mid-May is a healthy 41 per cent higher than the five-year average for the equivalent period. 

That’s the news from agency Knight Frank, which claims this as the biggest rise by price band in London’s recovering market since transactions resumed.

The second highest increase was for properties valued at £5m-plus, where the equivalent increase is 10 per cent. 

Fewer financial constraints for buyers in higher-price brackets mean they are typically able to transact more quickly, and the agency says the safe haven appeal of prime London property - plus the continuing weakness of the pound - have also been important factors in higher price bands.

In prime central London, prices fell 3.6 per cent in the three months to June, which was an improvement on the 4.4 per cent drop registered in May. The monthly fall was 0.2 per cent, taking the average annual decline to five per cent in June.

Knight Frank says the average discount to the asking price during the property market lockdown between the end of March and mid-May was 7.6 per cent in prime central London and 4.2 per cent in prime outer London.

“The decline in sales volumes has bottomed out and it appears the same thing is happening with prices. The strength of the recovery will become clearer as the economic consequences of the pandemic materialise but the property market has shaken off the initial effect of the lockdown” claims Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank.