More UK buyers completing on property in London West End, agents suggest | Europe | News

More UK buyers completing on property in London West End, agents suggest | Europe | News

There has been a marked increase in the number of properties priced at over £1 million in the West End of London, a location that has a short supply of family homes, according to leading agents.

West End specialist estate agency, LDG, said it has noticed some significant year on year shifts in who is buying in the area and what they are buying. Most significantly there has been an increase in sales of properties priced at over £1 million from 30% a year ago to 71% now.

Whilst the surge in activity on property priced £1 million and above has largely been attributed to the stamp duty increase from 4% to 5% on this price bracket, this is not the case for LDG. ‘We did not experience a surge in completions from people trying to avoid the stamp duty increase. Instead, I believe the higher number of sales of property in excess of £1 million is because we saw an increase of nearly 20% of people buying their main UK residence in the West End last year and as confidence has returned to the property market here, vendors have been more willing to put their homes on the market, in turn encouraging buyers,’ said Laurence Glynne, partner at LDG.