Developers and property specialists defended central London's booming 'Prime' residential property market at this morning's lively New London Architecture breakfast gathering (Tuesday, 11 December).
Apparently, it's good for London that average house prices in Kensington and Chelsea are now almost £1.1 million, compared to £189,000 in 1995. And, according to Jennet Siebrits, a CBRE property researcher, there's nothing wrong with 53 per cent of central London residents being people from overseas.
Siebrits also paraded a statistic that 87 per cent of Prime central London homebuyers in Quarter 3 2012 paid for their homes in cash.
Siebrits hinted at the inequality generated by a booming central London property market and the housing crisis facing parts of central and much of the rest of London. Only 15 miles apart, average house prices in Kensington and Chelsea are said to be fifteen times higher than in Barking and Dagenham in east London.
But Prime 'central London' doesn't enjoy unqualified support. "Buoyant yet dysfunctional", was how London's residential market was described last week at an NLA housing conference by David Lunt, a senior housing planner with the Greater London Authority.
Yes, 'Prime' generates vast wealth but some reckon strongly it perpetuates inequality across London.For more on New London Architecture's excellent housing in London exhibition visit www.newlondonarchitecture.org
Paul Coleman, London Intelligence, December 2012
1 comment:
... and did those 87% of cash buyers pay any tax on those earnings....
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