Prices of luxury homes in central London soared for a 14th consecutive month in December, as foreign buyers sought safer investments and jostled for relatively fewer properties for sale, according to Knight Frank LLP.
The London-based broker revealed that values of apartments and houses costing an average of £3.7 million (S$7.4 million) climbed around 0.8 percent from a month earlier. Prices are now seven percent higher than their previous peak in March 2008.
“Demand for prime London property in 2011, despite uncertainty resulting from the Eurozone debt crisis and on-going global economic uncertainty, outpaced supply and led to strong price performance,” said Liam Bailey, Head of Residential Research at Knight Frank.
In a report, Knight Frank said that prime central London prices have increased by about 40 percent since the market’s low in March 2009.
Meanwhile, a report by Halifax, a unit of Lloyds Banking Group plc, noted that home prices in the UK dropped 0.9 percent in December to a 30-month low.
“Tight supply has remained a feature of the prime central London property market through 2011 and we see little reason why this might change materially in 2012,” said Camilla Dell, founder of Black Brick Property Solutions LLP.
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