LONDON — After a go-go decade, Great Britain is suffering from a sudden, severe financial hangover. Now, however, the party has kicked into high gear for another group: foreign visitors and investors who are descending on London to take advantage of the plunge in the local currency and snap up high-end property, luxury cars and designer clothing at a discount.
The dramatic slide of sterling against the euro and other currencies since the start of last year has created big winners and big losers in the world of residential property. In the former category are international buyers in the UK, and especially in London, who are combining falling prices with improved exchange rates to secure deals that cost them 40-50 per cent less in their own currencies than they would have a year ago.
The Government’s stamp duty incentive to encourage first-time and low-paid buyers back to the housing market is one week old – and it may be working, up to a point. It is too early to judge whether there are already more buyers, but a few sellers are cutting asking prices to ensure that their properties fall inside the new threshold, where homes at £175,000 and below are exempt from stamp duty.
Tax changes are creating an exodus of foreign residents. Jessie Hewiston meets one American who has decided to get up and go.
All over London, the bags are packed and the tickets are booked. The ‘For Sale signs’ have gone up and the removal vans are parked out the front. The non-doms are on the move.
“Women are now arguably being paid as much as or more than men in the professional world. Successful female bankers, hedge fund managers and saleswomen – particularly women in property – are creating a new single woman status, “says Camilla Dell
