Sales in London’s prime residential property sector fell by 26% in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter in the previous year, the latest market analysis shows.
The fall reflects the rush at the beginning of 2016 from buyers eager to beat stamp duty changes in what was an abnormal market at that time of year, according to the survey from LonRes which tracks the sales and lettings markets.
The data also shows that prices were on average just 1% lower, the number of properties under offer were 9% lower than the first quarter of 2016 while the number of properties put up for sale were up by 3% but the number withdrawn from the market was up by 15%.
In the lettings market the number of properties rented out was up 16% while properties priced up to £500 per week and over £3,000 per week saw the most significant growth in the number of lets, up by 28% in both markets.
The first quarter of the year saw a third fall in a row of achieve rental values and the figures also show that new instructions were down 16% across prime areas of London and new instructions for the prime central London market fell by 0.5%.
There is also a trend of home owners moving out of London. Almost half of survey respondents said 10% or more of their sellers were looking to leave London at a time when house prices in the city are now 118% higher than the national average.
Buyers who traded their central London flat for a detached house in Surrey 10 years ago, for example, would now need an additional £300,000 over the price of their Surrey home to buy the same London flat.
The owner of a small flat of 498 square feet in prime central London could swap it for an average priced detached home in Surrey at £858,000.
