By Andrew Batt:
EXCLUSIVE: Claims that Asian buyers and investors are overpaying for their London property purchases have been ridiculed by agents and developers in Singapore.
The Financial Times reported comments from a London property sourcing agent who claimed that property buyers from Asia who are unfamiliar with London sometimes risk paying inflated prices, as well as buying inferior units in locations where the proximity to the centre of the city has been oversold.
In an article published on Saturday, Jo Eccles, Director of Sourcing Property, said: “The asking prices are usually inflated in our opinion and because the Asian investors don’t know London prices, they usually overpay. Asian buyers sometimes make the mistake of buying what they consider to be a great property, but it’s not always a coveted property in the U.K. market.”
The claim that different prices exist for the same property being sold simultaneously in Asia and London were categorically dismissed as false by agents and developers selling London property to Singapore property buyers and investors over the weekend.
Doris Tan, Director of Jones Lang LaSalle and widely regarded as a local expert on overseas property, told PropertyGuru: “London developers have one price for their properties and that price is used around the world.”
Tim Wright, Residential Director for Jones Lang LaSalle’s London office, who was in Singapore for the launch of Berkeley Homes’ Marine Wharf development, told PropertyGuru: “It’s simply wrong to say that buyers from Asia pay more than others for London property. Jones Lang LaSalle has been selling U.K. property in Asia for 20 years and if that was the case we wouldn’t be here now.”
Discussing buyers who purchase early in the life of a development, or during the first phase of sales, Wright said: “Buying in the early phases of a development is often cheaper, and as the development becomes more successful then developers may charge more for later phases.”
Tan agreed, and added: “Singapore developers operate in exactly the same way.”
Matthew De Monti, Sales Director for U.K. property developer Berkeley Homes, added that a lack of geographical knowledge isn’t an issue he’s witnessed among buyers from Southeast Asia.
He said: “Asian buyers who are not able to visit a specific site will send their family and friends to view the location before buying. You’d be surprised how often that happens.”
Berkeley Homes regularly exhibits London property in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, and buyers pay the same U.K. price throughout the world.
De Monti added: “If any developer is seen to inflate prices then word travels quickly and they will be found out.”
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