London property surges as cash flows out of troubled nations
INVESTORS fleeing the Eurozone crisis have helped push prime London property prices even higher, according to figures out today from Knight Frank, although the new higher rate of stamp duty on houses above £2m has slowed the pace.
Prices rose 0.7 per cent in May, taking the annual rise to 10.7 per cent and leaving prices 47.3 per cent above their post-credit crunch low in March 2009.
Prices in the sub-£2m bracket rose 2.7 per cent, while those above £2m increased by 1.6 per cent in the two months since the seven per cent rate of stamp duty was introduced.
The upward trend is set to continue, according to Knight Frank, as uncertainty in the Eurozone grows.
“While it looks very much that the surge in Greek buyers has fallen off sharply since the beginning of the year – those who had the funds to buy have done so – we are now seeing a noticeable up-tick in interest from France, Italy, Spain and even German-based purchasers looking at the prime London market,” said head of residential research Liam Bailey.