Get ready to party - London's market is bouncing back

The London housing market is enjoying the end of the lull before the storm, according to a leading buying agent.

Sara Ransom of Stacks Property Search says: “The London property market has been on ice for months and the pressure is building. As soon as lockdown starts to be relaxed, the housing market is going to take off in a dramatic manner.”

Ransom says recent months have resembled an extended Christmas break for the market - but that period is now, at last, nearing an end.

“Our prediction is things will start to pick up at the beginning of April, and that the market will be in full flow by the end of the Easter holidays. Demand is likely to exceed supply, and we expect to see price rises, especially in prime central London where prices have dropped by as much as 15 per cent due to the lack of overseas buyers. 

“Price reductions will fully reverse over the course of the next six months, and we predict that values will finish 2021 around five per cent higher than at the end of 2020.”

Ransom says that despite the obvious constraints, the capital is again seeing a trickle of international buyers.

She continues: “We expect them to return in force in April. They’re keen to buy having been unable to come to London for over a year now.

“It’s no secret that many Londoners have escaped the city during the Pandemic, and there’s a belief that there will be a strong desire to make a move to the country during the course of 2021. We believe that the proportion of people leaving the capital will be no more or less than in previous years. As the vaccine rolls out, and normality starts to return, the appeal of London life will re-ignite and London will become party-central.”

She tips Hampstead, Greenwich and Richmond as likely high-appreciation high-demand areas. 

“Buyers and sellers alike should get ready for the floodgates to open, we are approaching a heady market with stratospheric levels of transactions, and significant price rises.”