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News: Is London as 'safe as houses'?

Mon, 04 Aug 08

Top-end houses in London seem to holding their values despite the impact of the credit crunch.

According to Knight Frank, prices for prime central London residential property fell by 1.6% in July - the third consecutive month of price falls.
 
However, super-prime properties, worth more than £10m, continued to defy this trend, with prices rising by 1% during July and annual growth for this segment hitting 16.7%.

The northern area of prime central London - from Mayfair to St John's Wood - is also showing slightly positive growth of 0.6% over the last month.

And houses appear to be holding their value, achieving positive annual growth of 5.1%, compared to -0.9% for flats.

Liam Bailey of Knight Frank explained: 'The average price of [detached] properties sold in central London has increased drastically over recent months.

'Houses, few and far between in prime Central London, are in particular demand, and are holding their value better than flats.

'This may also explain strong performance in the northern parts of the central area, where entire houses are more common.'

'And despite the current gloom, there are signs of life in the wider market. Properties are now staying on the market for less than 60 days before sale - the lowest level for six months.

'This may indicate that vendors are finally becoming more realistic and accepting the new market conditions.'

For graphs showing the Land Registry data for property prices in London see:

House Prices Report for London - May 2007 to May 2008


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