Posted May 5, 2012 by admin in Blog | No comments yet
Prime Central London Property shrugs off stamp duty fears as prices rise 1.1%
London, England (PRWEB UK) 2 May 2012
Prime Central London property prices rose a further 1.1% in April, the number of new £2m+ applicants in April was 13% higher than in March, signalling prospective buyers were not deterred by the stamp duty rise, sales subject to contract in the three months to April were up 50% on the same period last year, French web searches for Prime Central London property spiked in February following election candidate Francois Hollande’s proposal for a new wealth tax.
“Early indications of the impact of recent changes to stamp duty are that the market is so far proving resilient.
“As was the case following last year’s stamp duty rise, there was a spike in the number of £2m+ exchanges in March and the number of sales for this April is higher than that for April last year. It is important to note however that activity was relatively weak last April.
“The picture from our purchaser activity indicators is also positive. Applicant volumes are not only stronger in April than in the same month last year but, reassuringly, they were also up 13% on last month, signalling that prospective buyers have not been deterred by the stamp duty changes. Though the number of viewings was down 7% in April compared to March this year, the figure was up on April 2011.
“Meanwhile, there has been much talk about wealthy French buyers turning to London, spooked by French election candidate Francois Hollande’s talk of wealth taxes. But is there any substance to the rumour? In terms of exchanges the answer is: not yet. Knight Frank saw just one additional sale to a French national in the first four months of this year compared with the same period in 2011. But there is anecdotal evidence of increasing interest, both in terms of the number of walk-ins reported by our offices and of prospective buyers searching online.
“By looking at search activity on Knight Frank’s Global Property Search website, we see that the number of French web users viewing prime central London properties on the site began to increase as the eurozone crisis hit in May 2011. Although this activity began to tail off later in the year, there was a significant spike in February (68% year-on-year growth in property searches), which coincided neatly with Hollande’s proposal for a 75% tax on top earners.
“Interestingly, the year-on-year change in visits for the three months to April shows that, while French searches in the sub-£1m sector have dropped off over the past year (down 14%), interest in the £5m+ bracket has surged (up 30%).”
For further information, please contact:
Liam Bailey, head of Residential Research, Knight Frank, +44 (0)7919 303 148, liam.bailey[at]knightfrank.com
Daisy Ziegler, London PR manager, Knight Frank, +44 (0)20 7861 1031, daisy.ziegler[at]knightfrank.com
Ends
Notes to Editors
Knight Frank LLP is the leading independent global property consultancy. Headquartered in London, Knight Frank and its New York-based global partner, Newmark Knight Frank, operate from 244 offices, in 43 countries, across six continents. More than 7,067 professionals handle in excess of US$ 817 billion (£498 billion) annually, advising clients ranging from individual owners and buyers to major developers, investors and corporate tenants. For further information about the Company, please visit http://www.knightfrank.com
©Copyright 1997-
, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
More Sale Property London Press Releases