We're influential.

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.

NEVER has there been so much speculation about the construction of a block of flats as that surrounding One Hyde Park, London’s most expensive apartment complex.

To buy or not to buy? That is the question many Hong Kong investors watching the British property market’s slide are asking themselves.

Rich international purchasers continue to underpin the London residential property market, according to Black Brick LLP, a specialist search agent that often works with private banks to source property for clients.

“There’s more stock across every sector but good properties are still incredibly hard to find. These are apartments on a first floor or above in the best buildings, or houses on the most desirable side of the square or street in sought-after areas,”

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.

First, take advantage of today’s buyer’s market, which may allow you time to view and revisit all properties in your price range.

London still has the most expensive real estate in the world, with top-whack properties going for twice the price here as in New York, Hong Kong and thriving Moscow, according to research by Hamptons International.

“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