Richard Barber, partner at Prime Central London estate agency, W.A. Ellis, comments:
"With 16 sales agreed in January, we have experienced our busiest January since 2009, when the combination of de-valued sterling and the fallout from Lehman Brothers brought an influx of European money to the prime central London market. This influx of activity indicates that the market has adjusted to the new Finance Bill and purchasers are now proceeding with renewed confidence.
The market around £2,000,000 and below is particularly exceptional. We launched a three bedroom flat in Egerton Crescent, Knightsbridge, for £2,000,000 on a 44 year lease at the end of January, and have had 16 viewings and two offers on the property already (to date). This is a particularly good flat in an excellent location and the response is indicative of the strength of demand for quality Knightsbridge flats.
We also launched an unmodernised house in Brompton Square two weeks ago priced at £4.5m and had 10 viewings on the first day, a testament to the continued confidence which property developers have in the prime central London market. As is the norm, the talk has been of rates per sq ft and, while we are now consistently seeing rates above £2,000 per sq ft being achieved, many developers believe that £2,500 per sq ft will be reached for newly developed stock.
The spread of nationalities actively in the market is also interesting and includes Egyptian, Hong Kong, German, Middle Eastern and of course, the British. It is worthy to note that in most of these cases, the prospective buyers are choosing to structure their purchases in their own names rather than in corporate ‘wrappers’ which will no doubt please the Chancellor as any Capital Gains Tax will now be more easily collectable.
While we doubt we will see huge capital growth this year, we are confident that transactional levels will be sustained. With spring around the corner, we anticipate the sales market, and in particular the house side, will become even more buoyant.”
Lucy Morton, senior partner and head of lettings, adds:
"Towards the end of January, the lettings market has been particularly strong, with double the amount of offers agreed in the last week of January compared to the previous week. I think that people really seemed to ‘switch off’ over the extended Christmas and New Year break, and clearly put their property searches on hold until the latter part of January.
All areas of the market have been buoyant, particularly between £1,500 and £2,000 per week where we have seen competitive bidding. We placed a three bedroom flat in Chelsea onto the market last week (w/c 28th January) and within the allotted one hour viewing slot, 10 prospective tenants viewed and an asking price offer was agreed within 24 hours of the viewings.
January has also seen the wider issue of lettings regulation in the press, with Baroness Hayter proposing an amendment to extend the scope of the Estate Agents Act to include letting and managing agents and this has been debated in the House of Lords.
The amendment was withdrawn; however this is very normal and generally means that it will come back in the report stage and that an amendment may still be possible. It never ceases to amaze me that the Government will not regulate our industry - at the very least, all agents should have client money protection, professional indemnity insurance and sign up to a redress scheme.
A small amendment to include lettings agents under the Estate Agents Act would go a long way to improve standards and professionalism in our industry and put a stop to the rogues.”
