Prime London recovery on hold as transactions show mixed messages

The latest LonRes market snapshot for prime London carries mixed messages in terms of transaction volumes. 

Overall, for the month of October, sales were down 26 per cent on a busy month last year and 19 per cent lower than in 2019.

Yet there were three per cent more sales at £2m to £5m, and 10 per cent more at £5m-plus compared with October 2020.  Comparisons with 2019 are higher still, with the number of £2m-plus sales up 29 per cent in October this year compared with the same month two years ago.

At below £2m the market was quieter.  

The impact of the stamp duty holiday, pulling deals forward earlier in the year still impacting volumes here. There were 31 per cent fewer sales below £2m this October compared with 2020 and 35 per cent fewer than in 2019.

However, LonRes insists that even with a few quieter months, the sales market across prime London has outperformed the previous two years.  

The number of sales in the first 10 months of 2021 was eight per cent higher than the whole of 2019 and 23 per cent up on 2020. And below £2m the number of sales so far this year is already a quarter higher than the full 12 months of 2020, with 16 per cent more sales at £2m-plus.

Prices are rising with houses sold in the last three months achieving 7.0 per cent more than in the same period last year. Flats, which sold less well over the course of the pandemic, also rose in value, albeit by a more modest 2.8 per cent.

LonRes head of research Marcus Dixon says: “Looking ahead the challenge for prospective buyers could be finding the right property, with available stock down 12 per cent on October 2020 and fewer homes reaching the market for sale.”