London house prices: Sub-£1m homes in central London “becoming extinct like the Dodo”, according to Wetherell and Dataloft report
Remember the Dodo? That's the way affordable homes in central London are heading, a new report has claimed.
Within the next 12 to 24 months, apartments costing less than £1m and houses valued at less than £2m "will become extinct across Mayfair and the West End", according to the latest research by Wetherell, with data analysis by Dataloft.
Less than five per cent of homes in Mayfair and the West End are estimated to be worth less than seven figures – but of those on the market between 2014 and 2015, 60 per cent are priced at than £950,000, with none priced below £750,000.
Some 49 per cent now sell for between £2m and £10m, while a further 11 per cent sell for more. A further 41 per cent sell for less than £2m, but 95 per cent of these were more than £1m. The average price is £4.8m.
The couple priced between £750,000 and £950,000 are “special cases”, the report claims – to lay people that means either tiny “broom cupboard sized" studio flats of 300 to 350 sq ft, or on short leases of around 40 years.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report also found that 60 per cent of the region's residents were born overseas – that's up from 49 per cent in 2001.
The survey, which has been carried out every year since 1985, revealed the eye-watering growth in the area's residential market. Back then, more than 90 per cent of homes sold in Mayfair were priced below £1m, and 80 per cent of one and two bed apartments were valued at less than £300,000.
Peter Wetherell, chief executive of Wetherell, said: “Over the next 12-24 months apartments priced below £1m and houses below £2m will, like the Dodo, become extinct across Mayfair and the wider West End.
"This reflects the continuing upward surge in resi-values in Mayfair and neighbouring areas, a reflection of both global demand and short supply, and also the large increase in super-luxury apartment schemes being built and sold in Mayfair over the last few years.
"Mayfair is the new Knightsbridge you could aptly say, the fashionable place for luxury property.”