House prices in prime central London are continuing to defy gravity, Knight Frank has reported.
The firm says prices have now risen 51% since the post-financial crisis low in March 2009.
Average property values in prime central London are now at yet another new record high, 15% above where they stood before the credit crunch struck.
This month alone, they have gone up 0.7% over August prices, and are now 10% higher than this time last year. Certain parts of central London are dizzyingly out-performing even that – prices in Knightsbridge, Hyde Park and Marylebone are all on average 14% ahead of where they were a year ago.
However, volumes of house sales have fallen in the £2m-£5m sector following Budget hikes to Stamp Duty. Sales are down 20% in the three months to September compared with the same period in 2011.
This fall has been balanced by a 23% rise in transactions for homes worth up to £2m.
Overseas buyers now account for 41% of buyers of London property worth over £1m, and for more than 50% of buyers in the £2m-plus market.
The overseas demand is driven by Russian, Indian, Italian, US and French buyers, says Knight Frank. It all neatly illustrates that it isn’t just the rich who are different – London is decidedly at odds with almost all the rest of the UK (Wentworth, Weybridge and Sandbanks being the obvious exceptions).
Here, for EAT readers to enjoy, is an all but sold-out development where two and three-bed penthouses are being marketed by Knight Frank and Savills.
The two-bedder costs £3.85m and the two larger ones are on at £5.95m, which seems to make the cost of an extra bedroom awfully expensive, and although you do get furniture (think Harrods), well, they’re basically flats between Chelsea Bridge and Battersea Bridge (think dogs home) being marketed to within an inch of their lives.
Apparently, some buyers who bought in the block for investment purposes like it so much they have made it their home – and bought an investment property elsewhere.
This could be happening nowhere else but London. But is it for real?
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Comments
I see the 'story' has been changed a little since my post. You still have the wrong information, Grosvenor Waterside, isnt between Chelsea and Battersea Bridges , it is at the foot of Chelsea Bridge - Battersea Bridge is about a mile or so further down the river. Whatever way you try to spin it that these apartments are in Battersea, they are not, they are close to Sloane Square with a SW1 address, next door to Chelsea Barracks - an area of immense appeal to overseas buyers - hence the prices.
I'm not sure you've got that quite right rich, in fact taxes paid by London subsidise large parts of the rest of the country.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2100345/Londons-taxes-prop-rest-UK-One-pound-earned-capital-funds-rest-country.html
Seeing as 100% of our taxes are spent in london on everything from olympics to regeneration projects it doesnt surprise me.
Its time not only Scotland got independance but the rest of england as well.
We are on our own when it comes to investment.
Grosvenor Waterside and Battersea Dogs Home are both close to Chelsea Bridge NOT Battersea Bridge. Grosvenor Waterside is SW1 the Dogs Home is SW8. A world of difference in the postcodes. So just a tad misleading.