Barely a week goes by without more news and stats about the property market in London and, given the affluent status of the borough, most mention Kensington & Chelsea! Here’s a roundup of some recent news:
- Easier Property reports on a recent Primelocation.com study which reviewed the size of properties that £1 million gets you. Unsurprisingly, London came up with the smallest properties in the country, with Kensington & Chelsea the “worst” value. A £1 million property here will only get you 1,443 square feet; by comparison, a million pound home in Liverpool will stretch to 4,000 square feet in size.
- In related news, £1 million properties have seen a recovery for a number of areas of the capital, including Kensington & Chelsea. Your Mortgage report that, overall for London, the number of properties sold in this price bracket rose by 2% in 2009, whilst in Kensington & Chelsea this figure stood at 11%.
- Meanwhile, Businessweek reports on data compiled by estate agency Knight Frank, who say that the value of properties above the £1 million mark in London have risen in value by 3.2% from January to February, and by 17% from February 2009 to the same month this year. Knight Frank takes its data from a number of wealthy neighbourhoods in London, including Kensington & Chelsea; prices for these areas are still below their peak, though their rise is fueled by a shortage of properties by strong demand from buyers, particularly foreign buyers who are attracted by the current weak Pound. The same article also states that developers are being brought by this upward trend in the property market; new “construction starts” increased by 43% between July and December 2009 in Kensington & Chelsea.
- Nothing to do with £1 million homes (well, maybe not…or maybe?!) Country Life points out that almost 8% of properties in the Kensington & Chelsea are “second homes” (i.e. pied a terres and similar) which apparently equates to 7,000 properties in the area.