November saw house price falls in London.
More evidence that the London property boom is cooling comes from a report from Haart, figures in the month of November show an average decline in property prices across London of 1.9%, there were wide variations in reported percentage changes across the Capital with some boroughs showing some exagerated drops. Haart said prices in north London fell by 6.7% last month alone, while in south-west London, stretching from Richmond to Streatham, prices were now down 14% over the past year.
Rents are also dropping it appears, this has been reported on data taken across England and Wales from two major agents. It found that rents across England and Wales dropped to £768 in November – down 0.2% since October, recording the largest falls in the south-east, a drop in property rental costs will be welcomed by many especially in and around the London and the south east where they were highest.
Many commentators talk of a drop in demand for the most expensive properties in London due to the collapse of the Rouble over recent weeks, I am not so sure that Russian buyers will be that affected as many would have taken action early and would be holding much of their wealth in other currencies, we saw this when there was a raid on savings in Euros in Cypriot banks during the bank crisis, it was reportedly the Russians who sufferd the most from that situation as they held the biggest accounts at that time.
Despite the signs of a marked London slowdown, it has been reported that Haart is confident prices nationally would rise again in 2015, there is definately optimism for 2015 and they predict that property price growth and general confidence will remain strong as we approach the next election.”