Gazumping_comes_back_with_a_vengeance_in_London - Introducer Today

Gazumping_comes_back_with_a_vengeance_in_London - Introducer Today

Gazumping is back with a vengeance in the London market as the capital increasingly does its own thing – divorced from the rest of the UK.

Agents are reporting that cash-rich buyers are piling into bricks and mortar, partly fuelled by a desire to beat the April 6 stamp duty deadline when £1m-plus houses will attract a 5% duty, and partly because their bonuses have landed.

Buying agent Jack Greenwood, of Homes One, said the London market had reached a ‘tipping point’ where buyers could no longer afford not to have their own representation.

He said: “Central London property has increasingly become a global commodity. Not only have prices and demand gone up, but supply has actually gone down.

“To make matters worse, in some parts of London almost one in four properties is now sold ‘off market’. The net result is huge competition for the best properties.”