London's burning

Published 28th Jul 2009

In a real departure from a few months ago, the London property market is swarming with buyers who are convinced they have missed the prime buying opportunities and are keen to get in now, before prices start to rise again in the face of renewed confidence in the market...

Timing your purchase just as the market goes sliding along the bottom is tough, but those that did are now celebrating in the face of an upturn in the UK market.

Liquidity has started to return to the lending market and consumer confidence is picking up as buyers start to return.

Accidental landlords - those that were forced to let their properties as they couldn't achieve the sale price they wanted - are now starting to sell once more. Asking prices are on the up and there are definite (cliché alert) green shoots in the UK property market.

As a result of this, London's property market is being crowded with buyers who fear that they have missed the boat on picking up the absolute best deals available when the market was at its lowest.

Those who wish to sell are reluctant to hand over their property until they have found a new home to buy, for fear of missing out on price rises and finding themselves priced out of the improving market.

Estate agent Cluttons said it had seen a whopping 75 per cent increase in new buyer registrations since July 2008 and a 35 per cent increase since May this year - all strong indications that we are slowly edging ourselves out of the doldrums.

James Hyman, Partner for Residential Sales at Cluttons comments on the lack of summer slowdown this year.

"We are seeing the complete opposite of a summer slowdown as buyers start to panic that they have missed the chance to buy at the lowest prices.

"There is a huge pent up demand, with buyers having waited for the last 18 months for the market to bottom - only the lack of stock is currently preventing activity in the Central London market from returning to 2007 levels."

It could be argued that once the supply and demand levels even out once more, this price rise and renewed confidence could disappear, but for now, things are definitely looking up.

Source: ' TMC '

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