A recent article on about London property declared that at the high end of the prime property market transactions had ‘collapsed’ and that an analysis and figures taken from Land Registry numbers by London Central Portfolio showed a ‘27.6% fall in transactions over the past year’. The problem with this analysis is that, at the very top end of the market around one in five deals are done though companies and most of these do not appear on Land Registry statistics. It is even possible that the proportion of these transactions through companies has increased over the last 12 months, but that information could only come from agents and not from Land Registry data.
My own experience is that the market continues to remain as it has been for quite a few years with serious overseas buyers intent on investing in Prime Central London and domestic buyers motivated to acquire good property that ticks all the boxes; it is certainly not ‘dead’, it has not ‘crashed’ and buyers are very much in evidence. While it may be interesting to compare what is happening in different parts of the property market, researchers really need to understand how properties are bought and sold, what appears and does not appear in Land Registry numbers. They should be mindful to always ensure that they compare like with like to avoid sending out inaccurate messages to the reader and prospective vendors and buyers.