Where to buy in London in 2023

From Kensington and Herne Hill to Mayfair, St John’s Wood and Acton, our team at Black Brick knows a thing or two about where to look for the best properties in our capital.

Managing Partner Camilla Dell and Property Consultant Tom Kain recently offered their insights to PrimeResi, sharing where buyers should be looking in London this year and taking into account key economic and cultural considerations.

Whether you’re looking for a classically elegant townhouse or an ultra-luxurious penthouse apartment, we can help you find the most exquisite properties in the most exceptional London locations.

Read the article here.

Looking for our 2024 guide? Our updated insights on London’s prime property market can be found here.

Why are so many property sales collapsing?

Property sale deals are increasingly falling through as the market continues to react to outside pressures.

In a piece this week in The Spectator, Black Brick’s Founder and experienced buying agent for prime central London, Camilla Dell shared her insights into trends and habits she has noticed emerging in recent times.

Read the article here.

House prices are falling. Should I wait to sell my property?

For two years now house prices have only gone in one direction – up. But now, things seem to be changing.

In this week’s article for The Times, Black Brick Founder Camilla Dell shared her insight into how the calming market has affected sellers in prime central London.

“There’s a lot of international money swirling around. Most sellers are just really bullish at the moment in prime central London,” she said.

Read the full article here.

Nick Candy flips £8.7m Mayfair flat to cash in on pound slump

“In prime central London, it’s open season for wealthy investors from abroad with dollars to burn”, writes Emanuele Midolo in The Times this week.

Sharing her insight as a property expert of over 20 years and worldwide respected buying agent for premium London properties, Black Brick’s Founder Camilla Dell provided her input for the piece, reflecting on our own experiences as a buying agency in recent times.

“Our client list looks a bit like it did in 2007 and 2008, before the great financial crisis,” Camilla said. “[Other than the Americans], a lot of them work in the oil and gas industry, and a lot are from west Africa. I think that we will see a ‘flight to quality’ as we did in 2007. Buyers looking to diversify their wealth will be drawn to best-in-class assets.”

Read the article here.

How to secure a property bargain in this buyer’s market

With house hunters now holding “more power”, Alexa Phillips of The Telegraph writes her top tips for getting a good deal in today’s market.

Sharing his thoughts for the article, Black Brick’s Casper Harvard-Walls recommended that buyers should keep a close eye on sale prices in the area they wish to buy in.

“They can then compare what sold previously to what they’re being offered by the agent to build a picture and tailor their offer,” he said. He continued by arguing that this is a much smarter strategy than just making offers that are 10pc below the asking price.

Read the full article here.

What’s next for the UK luxury property market?

In a new article for Barclays this week, Black Brick Founder Camilla Dell shares why she believes that the domestic property market will see huge price reductions in the next few months.

“If you take Fulham as an example, and I really like the area, in the last financial crisis it was Fulham and areas like that which took the biggest price hits,” she argued.

“It’s a very domestic market, with most people who buy taking on debt. All the properties and streets look broadly the same, with properties priced between £1.5 million and £3 million. But we think it’s these markets that are vulnerable to rising mortgage rates – with people not buying, and people needing to sell and lowering their prices in order to sell.”

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.”

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.”

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.