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A surge in the capital’s prime central housing market is driven by overseas buyers taking advantage of the weak pound and low prices.

Despite recent excitement about price rises, the truth is that this seeming ‘improvement’ in the market is a symptom of a distinct lack of supply. On a day-to-day basis we are seeing the result of this unbalanced ratio between the number of buyers and the amount of housing stock available – one of which is the noted increase in sealed bid situations.

Britain’s curb on banking bonuses may stunt the recovery in London’s luxury-housing market by wiping out the windfalls that let buyers afford big mortgages, according to property brokers Knight Frank LLP and Savills Plc.

Residential property prices in the UK have bottomed out with all the signs pointing to a stabilisation, according to the latest review but a two tier market is emerging.

There have been mutterings this week that the house prices have already hit the bottom Nick Candy clearly things they have; estate agents in central London believe prices could have reached their lowest point as early as November last year. So does this mean we have all missed our chance to cash in on the downturn?

Improve, not move is the mantra of our recessionary times, especially for those with a Sarah Beeny-esque penchant for making bags of money from bricks and mortar. We are constantly assailed with advice about what to do to boost the value of our home, but what changes push prices down and make a property less attractive to a future would-be buyer?

The first six months of 2009 has brought mixed result for global property markets but with tentative signs of growing confidence there is talk of signs of recovery.

Millions of us are glued each week to The Apprentice to see who will incur the wrath of Sir Alan.
For Camilla Dell, who runs London’s largest independent property-finding agency, Black Brick Property Solutions, watching the show is a reminder of why she started her own business.

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.