A contrarian bet on London housing

House prices are falling in the capital. But for contrarians, the current gloom provides a great opportunity, says Max King.

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Valuations are still on the rise in London's Covent Garden
(Image credit: Credit: imageBROKER / Alamy Stock Photo)

House prices in London fell in September year-on-year for the first time in eight years, according to Nationwide. The drop was only 0.6%, but prices for higher-end central London properties have fallen more than in the outer boroughs. This is due to a number of factors, including higher taxes, uncertainty about Brexit, the increasing supply of newly built flats, and plain old cost prices have run well ahead of earnings. But for contrarians, the current gloom provides a great opportunity.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.