Even London's property market can crumble

Think London house prices are immune from the price falls hitting the rest of the market? Think again.

Think London house prices are immune from the price falls hitting the rest of the market? Think again. Black Brick a property search agency notes that in July, prime London prices fell for the first time in 15 months (down 0.5%).

Meanwhile, "lenders are slashing" the valuations they put on top-end properties by "up to 25%", reports The Sunday Times. This won't surprise anyone watching the crushingly awful stats coming out of the market. Property website Zoopla tells us that a third of the houses currently on sale are at reduced prices, while the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says that new-buyer enquiries have fallen just as the number of properties coming on to the market has risen; and gross mortgage lending fell again in July.

One drop in prime prices clearly doesn't prove a trend. But the fact that the prime market moved in tandem with the wider market in July should concern prime London's agents. Their general view is that their area is immune from slowdowns. Why? Because there is a shortage of quality property. Because high bonuses mean City demand will remain high; and because, as Black Brick says, "international interest in London property is unlikely to be affected by UK public sector job cuts, rising domestic taxes" and the glum economic outlook.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

I'm not convinced. First, the bonus business. Yes, too many bankers are still paid too much. But the hedge funds have made almost no money this year so they won't be paying out big bonuses. And the banks are increasingly paying out in deferred shares, not cash. There is just less money than there was.

Next, international buyers. If you've made your money in environments with historically unstable property rights (China or Russia perhaps) you might view the UK as a safe haven. But foreign buyers alone cannot prop up a market indefinitely. And will they keep buying anyway? They might not think they use our public services, but they use our roads and rely on the security our police provide - won't these be hit by cuts? And what if the pound weakens again against Asian and commodity currencies? Will the losses they make on foreign exchange be worth the security they get from owning here?

That last question is particularly relevant. Asset security is only relative: the UK has a long tradition of responding to fiscal troubles by resorting to the extraordinary taxation of the rich. If I were a foreigner, even a non-dom, thinking of buying in London, I might look at the state of the public finances as we head for a double dip, cast my mind back to 1974, when the top marginal tax rate was 98%, note the renewed clamour for land and wealth taxes from the Labour leadership candidates, and think again.

PS. We'd like to know what you think of our website. Please take five minutes to fill in our reader survey, and you could win a year's subscription to MoneyWeek.

Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.