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Foreign buyers acquired half of London’s high-end homes in the late 2017

Central London homes are selling at about 10% of their asking prices

From back: Edgeware Road; Sadiq Khan, November 2016. (Credit: Danny Robinson; US Embassy London)
From back: Edgeware Road; Sadiq Khan, November 2016. (Credit: Danny Robinson; US Embassy London)

In central London sellers are making compromises — to the tune of an average of 10 percent off their listing price — and foreign buyers are snapping up the deals.

As a result, the amount of foreign buyers is at a five-year high, according to The Financial Times, and can mostly be explained by an influx of buyers from the Middle East. All told, the number of foreign buyers in the London last year accounted for about 30 percent of all buyers and about half of the deals made in the sales of high-end homes over the last six months of 2017 had foreign buyers.

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The reason for interest from abroad? Prices in the central areas of London are down 5 percent from their 2014 prices and some are down even more. The Times reported some “prime central” properties are down by 11 percent.

The issue of so much foreign ownership has ruffled feathers in municipal politics with mayor Sadiq Khan saying he was going examine what actions the government could take to ensure London residents would get “first dibs” on new homes. [FT] — Erin Hudson

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