Throughout January 2014 the market witnessed continued buying interest from international investors with a lack of supply putting upward pressure on prices. This situation is expected to normalise as new properties are brought to the market in February and March.
New sellers are set to come to the market later on this year before the new capital gains tax rules come into force in 2015, however it is widely anticipated that any over supply will be absorbed by the market fairly quickly.
We expect that the growth in property prices in prime central London will keep on having a positive impact on prices in the surrounding areas. New projects and the new transport links are broadening the interest of buyers to areas such as Battersea and Clapham and to some areas in East London. We also expect that demand for the more traditional period properties in Chelsea, South Kensington and Knightsbridge will remain strong particularly with European and Middle Eastern buyers. We are therefore confident that prime central London should continue to deliver good returns in 2014.
The positive GDP figures recently released by the Office National Statistics on the performance of the British economy provide a good backdrop to investors investing in the UK.
