Brexit is damaging London agents and market, warns global giant

Coldwell Banker, the huge US-based international estate agency business, is warning that Brexit is beginning to damage the market and the agency industry in London.

Writing on the US realtor industry website Inman, Laurent Demeure - the founder and chief executive of Coldwell Banker in France and Monaco - says other countries are beginning to see the fall out from the UK’s Brexit decision. 

“Although London is still expected to remain the finance capital of Europe, many banks are suggesting that they will move jobs to cities like Paris and Frankfurt. The estimates range from 10,000 to 75,000 positions moving or lost altogether” he says. 

Demeure also cites a new report from international consultancy PwC, called Emerging Trends in Real Estate in Europe, which says that although the pessimism over Britain’s exit from the EU has lessened over the past 12 months, some 80 per cent believe property values and investment will fall in 2018. 

Around 12 to 20 per cent believe the falls will be substantial.

The PwC report deals mostly in demand for commercial property but Coldwell Banker’s Laurent Demeure tells Inman readers: “Residential real estate follows commercial … London is the only major European city expected to see a decrease in rents and investment capital … It was the second year in a row that London did not fare well in the [PwC] reports; instead four German cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt), Luxembourg and Paris are expected to see the greatest rise.”