For the fourth successive month, prime London values have decreased and stock levels are at their highest, soaring 33% higher than this time last year. This is in contrast with the mainstream housing market, where RICS report that the number of people putting their home on the market continued to fall during September.
Prime country sales have also fallen for the second consecutive month, but they are still valued at 4.7% higher than last September.
Prime London rental values have continued on a downward trend as stock floods the market. The loss of jobs in the financial sector seen over the past few weeks is expected to have a severe impact on prime London sales and lettings. Large-scale job losses will result in the termination of tenancies on hundreds of top-end apartments and houses in many prime London areas and we expect this to cause values to drop further over coming months.
We are yet to see what the true impact the job losses in the city will have on the London prime market, but as the credit crunch continues to bite, it's better news for those prime buyers and renters who are still actively searching for property.