The party’s over for London property

A buying frenzy of European stocks and a resurgent pound could undermine the foundations of London's resilient property prices, says Tim Bennett.

"There are three main safe havens' now," David Adams, managing director of estate agents John Taylor, tells The Guardian: "gold, the Swiss franc and London property." He may be right on the first two but we're not so sure about the latter.

There's no disputing the fact that prime London residential property prices have defied the global economic gloom. According to Knight Frank in The Sunday Times, average prices for prestigious postcodes are up by around 50% since hitting their post-credit crunch low in early 2009.

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Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.