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Foreign buyers are swooping in to snap up London homes going cheap

As the pound continues to plunge, dollar buyers from over in America are making big savings on prime central London properties.

As a renowned London buying agent for its most luxurious properties, Black Brick Founder Camilla Dell featured in The Telegraph this week to share her insight on the recent influx of overseas buyers.

“The currency exchange rate has definitely helped. We can say to our clients that their stamp duty bill is effectively paid, compared to if they were buying this time last year.”

Read more in the full article here.

The British pound is sinking, and its luxury market is rocking as a result

In an article for Robb Report this week, Black Brick buying agent Casper Harvard-Wells shares how the plunge of the pound has caused turmoil for the UK’s premium property market.

He reflected that, as a result of the pandemic, 2020 and 2021 were “dominated by domestic buyers”, making the prime central London market, which is often most popular with overseas buyers, rather soft. However, he noted that September had been unusually busy this year:

“People buying second homes don’t decide to do it yesterday, but clients who were already thinking about buying are fast forwarding what they were doing,” he said. “I had a client three weeks ago, who purchased from us at the beginning of the pandemic and has just done his flat up, say to me ‘If you’re a dollar-based buyer and not going to be buying now, the question is when?’”

Harvard-Walls also shared how he’d seen “dollar-based UHNWers buy up sterling now that they don’t intend to disburse immediately”, saying that “[This will have] a long-term impact on London. They might sit on their pounds for two years because they don’t have to do anything tomorrow,” he adds, “Property takes a long time to transact. So we won’t know the real result in this sector of what we’re talking about now until at least Christmas or the New Year.”

Read the full article here.

Stamp duty bonanza ‘may stoke inflation and interest rates’

Chancellor Kwasi Kwateng announced radical changes to stamp duty payments this week, and experts have reacted by predicting yet more increased house prices.

Black Brick’s Partner and experienced buying agent, Caspar Harvard-Walls has joined criticism of the move in The Times, arguing that it fails to address a lack of supply in the market. “Tax breaks are welcome, but there is still the fundamental issue of there not being enough new homes being built every year.”

Read more in the full article here.

The best places to move near good schools in 2022

Tim Palmer of The Times has declared the best places to move to in the UK that are nearest to the very best schools.

Leaning on the expertise of various buying agents and property experts, the article features the advice of Black Brick buying agent Caspar Harvard-Walls, who warned that the cost of living crisis is “striking fear even among the wealthy”, leading to experts like him to expect buyers in the most premium areas to begin looking more closely at state school catchment regions.

“If people’s income is squeezed, saving on school fees will become a massive issue, especially as 70 per cent of new Oxbridge undergraduates now come from state schools,” he said.

Read the full article here.

What would cutting Stamp Duty do to the housing market and economy?

With Friday’s mini-budget reported to announce stamp duty cuts, Black Brick’s Founder Camilla Dell joined a panel of property experts and UK buying agents in PrimeResi this week, sharing her reactions.

“I am not convinced cutting stamp duty will aid investment into the UK.”, she said.

“The market has absorbed stamp duty increases since they were first introduced in 2014. The cost of stamp duty, whilst high in the UK, is not a deciding factor for investment here, particularly for high net worth individuals who simply factor the stamp duty cost into the overall price of a property. Previous cuts to stamp duty also haven’t really worked.”

“For example, during Covid, the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak cut stamp duty for all purchases up to £500,000. The cut benefitted all buyers; everyone from first time buyers to second home owners, investors and overseas buyers. The end result was that house prices rose, higher than the actual cut in stamp duty. An unintended consequence, and proof that simplistic cuts to tax don’t work or benefit those who need them most.”

Read more in the full article here.

How ultra high-end new homes across London are kitted out for the super wealthy

Our Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell revealed insight into the often hidden world of prime property this week, sharing her experiences of working with high-end clients in The Standard.

“Real luxury has to have top quality construction, materials, layout and design,” she said, adding that buyers particularly like the character of an older building combined with the convenience of a new-build.

“The combination of the charm and history of an older building with the comfort of a new build is another highly desirable design feature,” she continued. “Developments such as Battersea Power Station and The Old War Office are good examples.”

Read the full article here.

£10 million is no longer enough to buy ‘an amazing family home’ in prime central London

How much does a prime property in London now cost? Black Brick’s Camilla Dell discusses the super prime central London property sector this week in Spear’s.

Sitting down amongst a panel of property experts who specialise in sourcing the capital’s most luxurious properties for high-profile clients, Camilla shared her perspective on how international buyers are down at the moment compared to times before the pandemic.

She added, though, that, “there’s a huge amount of interest at the moment from [HNWs who are] US dollar-based”.

“At the moment, we’re seeing a lot of clients from emerging market countries,’ Dell said, noting that buyers who had recently made money in the oil and gas industries were particularly prevalent. ‘London for them is looking really quite cheap at the moment”, she continued.

Read the full article here.

Everything you need to know about moving to Dulwich, south London

Dulwich, in South London has been described in The Times this week as a “historic area”, that’s “green by nature and lifestyle”.

Sharing our insights as an experienced buying agency for London and the wider UK, Black Brick’s senior property consultant, Tom Kain commented:

“Dulwich has seen some of the sharpest rises in property prices of any area over the last 25 years. Knight Frank reported in 2018 that prices had risen 1,150 per cent since 1995, making it home to the highest long-term rise of any area in England and Wales over the period. Teachers, doctors and artists are being replaced by bankers and lawyers.”

Read the full article here.

Why is the property market joining the podcast party?

Podcasts are on the rise, and the property market hopping on the bandwagon in an effort to keep up.

We shared our input as to why Black Brick buying agency has set up a podcast, too, this week in Estate Agent Today.

Read the full article here.