Prime Central London Performing Well

The upper-end of the London property market is still motoring along, according to Abode2 luxury property magazine, but depleted stock levels means that buyers now face a distinct lack of options.

Comparing transaction volumes in the higher and lower price ranges shows a markedly different picture, which is largely put down to the stamp duty holiday effect.

Sales below the £2m mark were down by 31% in October, compared with the same month in 2020, and 35% on October 2019; meanwhile, in the £5m-plus range – where deals were less likely to have been brought forward to earlier in the year – sales were up 10% on 2020 levels, and 29% higher than the same period two years ago.

Overall, volumes across the prime postcodes were down 26% on a busier-than-usual October last year and 19% lower than in 2019.

2021 will still go down as a big year, however the number of sales in the first 10 months of 2021 was 8% higher than the whole of 2019 and 23% up on 2020. Below £2m, the number of sales so far this year is already 25% higher than the full 12 months of 2020, with 16% more sales at £2m plus.

Promisingly, 14% more properties went under offer in October, compared to the five-year average, following an 11% rise in September. That’s down from the highs seen earlier in the year when the stamp duty holiday was still in effect, but bodes well for activity levels in the lead-up to Christmas.