The desire by overseas buyers to own property in London plus the lack of available properties may be behind the fact that London continues to have the most expensive property in the country by a considerable margin The average house price in England and Wales is now £153,046 – 14% down on the same period last year but 0.1% up on the month, according to the latest Land Registry numbers. This was the first monthly increase since January 2008. London property prices are way above the national average with the average house price in the capital touching £302,000, down 12.5% on June 2008.
House prices in England and Wales rose 0.1% in June, suggesting a flattening out of the market, rather than a return to solid growth, new official figures suggest today.
The volume of properties available in central London in July was down 34% compared to the same month a year earlier. The number of properties coming forward for the autumn market, is showing no improvement – with the pipeline of new properties coming to the market down 42% over the same period.
Liam Bailey, head of residential research, Knight Frank, comment “The three biggest overseas markets in Q2 2008 were European (37% of all overseas buyers), Russian (19%) and North American (13%). In Q2 this year these figures slipped (to 34%, 14% and 10% respectively) as we saw a doubling in the proportion of overseas demand from Africa, Asia, Australia, China, the CIS (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan), and the Middle East.
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