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.
With property prices in London softening, City high net worths are using specialist search agents to find bargain properties – before they hit the market.
Throwing in a free Mercedes with the sale of a luxury penthouse is nothing new, but it is getting more common. Against the backdrop of a rapidly weakening market, developers are having to work harder than ever to sell – often resorting to incentives that if it took place in the City might raise eyebrows.
With the gap between the super-prime and mainstream markets widening, so too is the differential between property types, says a new study.
As the number of property transactions fall, the quality of property becomes ever more crucial. This focus on ‘best in class’ will play a major role over the coming months, with ‘average’ property forced into greater discounts than their higher quality counterparts.
Like Oxford’s spires, British fee-paying schools evoke notions of educational perfection. For many affluent non-Britons, names such as Eton and Harrow share a pedigree with buildings such as Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s cathedral: traditional British institutions that cannot be out-sourced to China.
