Black Brick has signed up eight new clients in the last fortnight – all but one of whom are looking for apartments in London’s top postcodes: ‘It was tumbleweed for 18 months but now it is a frenzy’.
Prime Central London flats are back on the wishlist for high-end buyers, according to a Mayfair-based agency.
Black Brick’s buying team has reported signing up eight new clients in the last fortnight alone, with a combined spending power of £17m. Interestingly, 100% of them want PCL addresses, and all but one are after an apartment.
Homes sold in London this summer were 20% bigger than the 2016 to 2019 average, according to LonRes, but the renewed appetite for flats suggests this particular pandemic-driven market trend “could be slowing down”, said the firm.
“It has been an extraordinary start to autumn,” confirmed managing partner Camilla Dell. “Demand for Prime Central London flats is back. It was tumbleweed for 18 months but now it is a frenzy.
“It started in August when we suddenly had a lot of Middle Eastern clients coming over…Then, literally as soon as the schools went back we started to get really busy with lots of new clients.”
The new crop of prospective buyers have mostly come from North America, West Africa, and the Middle East.
The return of overseas buyers is good news for PCL developers and vendors, added the firm, but the heightened interest isn’t yet reflected in house price data. According to the latest official UK HPI, prices in Westminster are down 3% year on year (to an average £898k) while in Kensington and Chelsea they have inched up by 0.7% to just over £1.3m.
Dell: “If you walk around London it really feels like the buzz is back. People are back in their offices, and just walking around town it feels almost like the pandemic never happened. In terms of prices, the needle is probably already moving, and we could see growth in Prime Central London of 2 to 3% by the end of the year if it carries on at the current rate.”
