31/01/2008

London and country house markets hold steady

According to latest figures from Knight Frank, December showed a surprising increase in the state of the prime London market over that of November, with market growth of 1%; a reversal oftrend shown in the previous two months. Growth on an annual basis continues to slow, but at 28.6% is now at a level similar to that last demonstrated in December 2006 (28.7%). The slowdown in the quarterly figure appears to have steadied at 1.4% just 0.2% down on the previous quarter. The area with the greatest growth rate is the SW region of central London at 1.8%; the greatest increase over the last quarter. Meanwhile, figures for the country house market also remained relatively firm in the final quarter of 2007; with prices falling by -0.04% overall. This is the first price decline recorded since June 2003. Overall prices for country properties rose by 7.9% over 2007; while prices for manor houses were unchanged in the final quarter, although over 2007 as a whole they saw growth of 10.5%. Farmhouses experienced a small increase in value in the final quarter at 0.6% and ended the year 8.4% higher. Country cottages saw the weakest performance, with values falling -0.7% in the final three months of 2008, although they showed modest growth of 4.9% over the year as a whole.

For further information, see www.knightfrank.co.uk.

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