GBPUps and downs, year-to-dateGBPA 17.5% depreciation once morest the US dollar makes UK property more attractive to buyers paying in US dollars.
London house prices have fallen by nearly 20 per cent over the past year due to falling selling prices and currency effects, according to real estate broker and consultancy Knight Frank. This rare opportunity has lured American buyers into the UK housing market, whether it’s a $400,000 London flat or a $30 million historic country estate.
Paddy Dring, head of global key sales at Knight Frank, said that with the steady increase in US buyers, some switching plans will use this opportunity to develop their long-term investment plans to diversify their overseas investments.
Knight Frank says falling house prices coupled withGBPDepreciation, with effective discounts of 19% and 17% in London’s popular housing market locations Chelsea and Knightsbridge respectively.
Tom Bill, head of residential research at Knight Frank, said that if you compare it to 2014, thenGBPEquivalent to US$1.71 once morest the US dollar, and at a time when London property prices were 13% higher, the discount was even greater, with discounts of more than 50% in Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill, and more than 45% in the neighbouring areas of Kensington and Mayfair.
For example, with 5 millionGBPThe Knightsbridge property listed for sale, which was asking $8.6 million eight years ago, is now only $4 million.
For larger properties that sell for more, the savings are even bigger.Blackstone Group chief executive and chairman Steve Schwarzman just bought $80 millionGBPBuy a historic 2,500-acre estate in Wiltshire, approximately 90 miles west of London.GBPThe depreciation means that Schwarzman, who bought the property this year, saved as much as $20 million or more compared to last year’s sale price.
Dring said that the range of buyers in the United States is very wide, from elderly couples looking for small apartments for retirement vacations, families buying houses for children who are studying in the UK, long-term workers in the UK, and even super-rich looking for long-term good investment targets, all kinds of buyers. Identity has.
“There are not many buyers who are purely speculative, and there are usually business, education or lifestyle reasons behind the purchase,” he said. However, the savings are naturally the most significant for the wealthy who can afford to buy large properties.
