A research conducted by Rightmove show a buyer activity increase of 6% for properties marketed for values over £750,000.
Rightmove is claiming that top end of the property market in London is showing signs of revival.
The portal says 6% more homes over £750,000 have been sold over the past four weeks than during the same period last year. Properties over this price point comprise a fifth of sales across the whole of London.
Estates agents all around London say they have been enjoying “records” in July and August including a 62% increase in ‘sales agreed’ compared to the same time last year. Directors of well known estate agents are feeling like confidence is strongly coming back to the London property market.
But the upturn within the capital’s prime property market masks ongoing difficulties across the whole of the city’s housing market.
Rightmove says buyer activity is down by 3.6% for properties worth less than £750,000 and that prices are only rising significantly within London’s inner Zone 1 travel area, while the rest have seen static or dropping asking prices.
The time it takes to sell a property has also begun to climb in London overall, up from 67 days this summer to 72 days now.
The portal says the signs of recovery within the central and prime property market in London has followed two years of falling house prices across the capital.
“The recovery in the upper end is encouraging but the painful and drawn-out process of price reductions has yet to run its course especially in parts of Outer London and the commuter belt that saw very sizeable and unsustainable price rises,” says Rightmove director Miles Shipside (right).
Agents need to re-adjust their expectations to be in line with what buyers are willing or able to pay, as it seems that buyers are out there if the price is right. London has always been a barometer and sometimes a catalyst for rises and falls in the rest of the UK housing market.
An increase in sales agreed for properties costing over £750,000 is proving a positive uplift, despite fears of a no-deal Brexit.
Capital may remain slow as international buyers seeking long-term investment in the city make up a large proportion of sales, those potential buyers continue to have a wait and see approach, this is unlikely to change until uncertainty fades and confidence is regained from a Brexit deal.
Although a clear divide between regions remains, the overall picture in the UK is encouraging and positive, as the high-employment rate and government first-time buyer incentives help steer the market upwards.
