prime property Archives | London Property Consultants

Simon Barnes: Prime Property Market Update

Contrary to what people predicted, the end of the world did not occur on the 23^rd June 2016. In London, life continued and the prime property market at the £10m and above level has been very active over the last six months and far from quiet.

We anticipate that this momentum will carry over and continue as 2017 begins. The market at £20m plus and ‘trophy homes’ has certainly been affected by oil prices and Russian sanctions, but for the rest of the prime property market it has been business as usual.

Buyers have been shocked at the way the market has continued to perform and those who have expected to be able to sit back and wait have been caught out, losing out on good houses. In some cases, asking prices have been exceeded and there have been bidding wars underlining the demand in the prime to super prime PCL market.

London Prime Property into 2017

As we head into 2017, the prime property market looks set to continue in the same vein and buyers will get caught out if they take things for granted because decent property at this prime level is not stagnating.

Sellers need to be realistic in terms of pricing and when they are buyers will come knocking. At this this time of year, it is unrealistic to contemplate either selling or buying, but come January we expect buyers and sellers to be more focused and for 2017 to be a positive year for the PCL property market.

by Simon Barnes

The business of buying prime property

Prime Property: Simon Barnes, H. Barnes & Co, talks about the business of buying prime property and the ‘death of buying agents’ ….

I was interested to read a recent article in the Financial Times (subscription required) about an increasing number of buying agents going out of business or throwing in the towel. Before times got tough in Prime Central London, it didn’t make monetary sense among a lot of estate agents for the lazy estate agent ‘Henry Fitzwilliam-Smythe’ to contact other property professionals or properly ‘work’ his database; not when he could sell a property with one phone call and happily take his commission, rather than making two or three calls to achieve the same result.

Prime Property in London

While sloppy buying agents won’t retain good clients and will be ignored by estate agents, the best buying agents who have vetted and carried out due diligence on their clients will now be making their presence felt and more importantly count with estate agents finding the current market conditions in Prime Central London trickier than for some time. Estate agents need to have the ear of those acting for serious buyers, who make the right buying noises and should be picking up the phone to buying agents with a direct access to these candidates and really exploiting this receptive market.

Established estate agencies, who on a point of principle, would not deal with buying agents however talented have or should think again. It’s a tough market out in Prime Central London, and it’s not a question of the fittest, but more about property consultants and buying agents being skilful, knowledgeable, tenacious, experienced and well-connected. Let’s be honest, great properties do not come to those who wait, you need to know who might be tempted to sell, who is selling and where to seek and find the best. Similarly, having access to serious buyers, with funds in place and motivated to buy or invest in property in PCL is a vital component in making the life cycle of a property transaction actually come to fruition. [Read more…]

by Simon Barnes

Prime Property: When a crash is not a crash

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.

London Prime Property into 2017

Prime Property in London

Contact H. Barnes & Co – Tel: 020 7499 3434