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Falling valuations and desperate owners all point to property bargains. But, Graham Norwood reports, canny buyers can cut the price further.

Phil Spencer’s home-finding firm has gone bust, developers have downed tools worldwide and The Apprentice hopefuls include an estate agent seeking a career change. It doesn’t sound an ideal time to try to make a profit from property, does it? Yet we may look back on spring 2009 as the moment when we should have acted.

Buyers with cash in hand are in the best position to take advantage of the current climate. ‘Vendors are more likely to accept a lower offer on their property from a cash buyer than a higher one that’s subject to obtaining a mortgage,’ says Camilla Dell of London buying agency Black Brick Property Solutions. ‘Cash buyers are king.’

THE news this week that Garrington – the property search firm owned by Phil Spencer of television’s Location, Location, Location fame – has gone into administration, might lead some to believe that the age of the buying agent is at an end. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

London home sellers are accepting offers of up to 30 per cent below their asking prices, and Hong Kong buyers are among those taking advantage of the deep discounts and the added attraction of a collapse in the value of the British pound.

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.

Could the bottom of the market be in sight? For those ready to trade up, that dream home is fast becoming affordable – and canny house-hunters are out looking for bargains.

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.

Despite gloomy figures from many industry bodies, Black Brick are predicting that 2009 could present some tantalising opportunities.

Although it seems that the UK residential property market is in freefall, there remains a demand for prestige London properties, especially amongst international clients, says Camilla Dell, managing director of Black Brick Property Solutions. She outlines how private banks can benefit from working alongside property search agents to offer clients a complete package for their financial and property needs.

As women rise meteorically through the ranks in business, competing for the US Presidency, becoming Prime Minister of the UK and other countries, occupying senior posts in medicine, science, the literary arena, corporate business and indeed without limits in any field, we look at some of the successful women in the property world.

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.