London properties defy gloom as wealthy buyers push prices for top homes up 10% last year

Published 29th Dec 2011

Prices of upmarket homes in London hit record highs in 2011 as the capital left the rest of the country in its wake, a report showed yesterday.

The average value of a ‘prime’ property in London has jumped ten per cent in the last 12 months to £1,221,699, according to the housing website PrimeLocation.com.

The increase of more than £111,500 – driven by booming demand from wealthy overseas buyers – represents a gloom-defying £306 a day.

Nigel Lewis, a property analyst at PrimeLocation.com, said: ‘It is no surprise to see that London’s top properties are the most desirable in the country. Prime homes in the capital are almost a law unto themselves, defying the current economic climate which is driven in part by cash injections from wealthy overseas buyers.

‘No property market is invincible, but it’s likely that the capital’s prime market will continue to outperform the rest of the UK by quite some distance in the coming months and continue the steady growth seen for the most part of 2011, which against a backdrop of great uncertainty has been very encouraging.’

A ‘prime’ home is defined as one in the top 25 per cent of properties by value.

The most expensive borough in London was Kensington and Chelsea where the average price of a prime home edged up 1 per cent in 2011 to nearly £2.7million. In the City of Westminster, average prices increased 8.4 per cent to more than £2.4million.

Yolande Barnes, director of research at the estate agent Savills, said the surge in prices ‘has been almost entirely fuelled by a massive injection of overseas cash by foreign buyers’.

The fastest pace of growth came in Wandsworth, up 28.8 per cent, according to PrimeLocation.com, followed by Barnet, up 19.1 per cent, and Hammersmith and Fulham, up 18.6 per cent on a year ago.

Source: ' ThisIsMoney '

View All Latest News