Now I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t willingly surrender my property thinking brain to Knight Frank or any other estate agency, particularly one with a vested interest in keeping the central London property market bowling up a hill. However recent experience leads me to broadly agree with the factual content of the picture they have painted in their review .

According to Knight Frank the London market for £2M plus property has been experiencing disproportionate demand compared to the rest of the UK.  They cite international buyers as mainly responsible for 68% of sales “north’ (Posh agent speak!) of £5M in the last 18 months to June 2010. This may be buyers from countries whose currencies are pegged to the US dollar or Far East buyers taking advantage of a weak pound. Its not entirely clear where they get their statistics from. I doubt that even Knight Frank are responsible or have intimate knowledge of the nationality of every buyer in their stats. However thay may be safe in extrapolating as they are clearly one of the main London players.

Actually the pressure is felt much further down the price scale than that with sealed bidding wars over much cheaper flats in NW3 but I believe that sector is more organically driven with local London money and buyers with a greater desire to occupy and a lesser need to trade.

Labels: Buying-agent, house price statistics, Property News