London Property Bouncing Back from Brexit
As a London property consultant we make it our business to know exactly what the state of the London property market is from one week and month to the next. We know from experience that this is simply what our customers expect; when you’re working as a London property finder it’s imperative that you’re aware of the wider state of the market. After all, the individual worth of any property is dependent, to a very large degree, upon how much it was worth previously, and what it might be expected to fetch in the future.
This need for certainty and reliable information is just one of the reasons why the Brexit vote sent such shockwaves through the UK property market as a whole and the world of London off market property in particular. Any sense of uncertainty regarding the economic and political situation is generally presumed to have a ‘cooling’ effect upon the market place, and the evidence in the immediate aftermath of the referendum vote – albeit mainly anecdotal – seemed to indicate that this was indeed the case.
Now that a couple of months have passed it’s worth revisiting the impact of Brexit upon the work of London property buying agents, especially in light of the fact that there is still very little certainty as to what the process of leaving the EU will entail, or even when it is likely to actually begin. Given the problems which doubts of this kind are generally presumed to cause, it’s interesting to note that the property market in London, at the very least, appears to have proved to be remarkably resilient.
In large part, this has been down to one of the most obvious impacts of the Brexit vote – the drop in the value of the pound. This alone means that foreign investors purchasing a property in London are enjoying something like a 15% saving on what they might previously have expected to pay on the simple basis of the exchange rate, and this is prompting foreign investors to seek even greater savings by sourcing properties beyond the usual central London property hot spots.
The move to target properties beyond central London has had the effect of heating up the market for such properties by pitting foreign investors making multiple purchases against first time buyers who may well, before now, have held back due to Brexit uncertainty.
Although the presence of foreign investors has often been cited as one of the causes of a lack of available housing in London, the wake of the Brexit vote has seen these investors playing a major role in keeping the market turning over efficiently. The appeal of making multiple purchases rather than one high cost investment – as many of the foreign investors are now opting to do – also lies in the manner in which any stamp duty fees are reduced and in the potential for growth in the areas being targeted.
If you require a property consultation in London then come and see us at Irvine and Cole. We combine a commitment to hands on customer service with a strategic grasp of the wider property market.
