Real Estate
London Prime Property Prices Gained In 2012; Only Some Asian Cities Did Better - Data
Hong Kong, Jakarta and Beijing were the only cities to outperform
London in terms of the price growth of properties between the
trough of the 2009 property market and the latter part of
2012,
international real estate consultants Knight Frank said in a
review of the UK’s market.
Despite headwinds from a 40 per cent jump in UK stamp duty taxes
and new rules for an annual
charge on properties worth £2 million or more, the London prime
residential property market
reported a price rise last year of 8.7 per cent from a year
before, the firm said. Over the period from Q1 2009 to Q3 2012,
prices rose almost 51 per cent, the report said.
This gain was “well ahead of rival European cities which
have struggled with ongoing economic pressures and the desire of
international buyers
to diversify away from euro-denominated assets”, it said. Among
other cities,
for example, New York saw prices fall by 1.4
per cent, while prices fell 4 per cent in Paris
and 6 per cent in Geneva.
Between the first quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of last year, Hong Kong prices rose 72.72 per cent; Beijing prices rose 71.58 per cent; Jakarta prices rose 52.9 per cent, and London's rose by 50.87 per cent, Knight Frank said.
London’s prime market contrasts
with the performance of the UK
in general. While prices for upscale properties in the capital
are now 53 per
cent higher than the market trough in March 2009, average UK
house prices
are only 7.5 per cent higher over the same period. Last year,
average UK
prices fell by 1.0 per cent.
Knight Frank predicts there will be no price growth in London
prime residential
property values in 2013, as the market absorbs the effects of
higher taxes.
Foreign buyers have been significant in boosting the London
market in recent
years; foreigners now accounted for 49.3 per cent of sales on
£1.0 million-plus
homes in 2012. Of the overseas share, Russians accounted for 6.6
per cent, US
citizens 4.8 per cent, Indian citizens, 4.4 per cent, French
citizens 3.3 per
cent and Italian nationals at 2.6 per cent. Other shares were:
South Africa (2.2 per cent); Greece (1.8 per cent); United Arab
Emirates (1.5 per cent); Australia (1.5 per cent); Germany (1.5
per cent); Switzerland (1.1 per cent); Oman (1.1 per cent);
Turkey
(1.1 per cent) and Saudi
Arabia (1.1 per cent).