London’s housing market is in bad shape

Time to read
less than
1 minute
Read so far

London’s housing market is in bad shape

October 23, 2018 - 11:45
0 comments

London’s housing market is in bad shape, Bloomberg reports. Although official numbers show that prices in the UK’s capital started to fall this year, real estate agents felt that bad times were coming earlier.

London, UK | © Steen Jepsen, CC0 1.0

London’s housing market is in bad shape, Bloomberg reports.

Although official numbers show that prices in the UK’s capital started to fall this year, real estate agents felt that bad times were coming earlier.

According to the head of residential agency division of Cluttons, price in the center of London fell by 15% this year compared with 2014. It might fall further 7% in next year and a half.

The problems of market participants continue accumulating. It started with tax changes and stretched affordability and continued with Brexit difficulties. Now there is an additional tax levy for foreigners ahead. Besides, the government increased taxes for second home owners buying them for renting.

Meanwhile, the real problem is in too high prices of housing. Even taking into account recent weakening of the market, only one third of young adults can afford buying a house in London, while price of average home in London 14 times higher than average full salary in the city.