London House prices rose in April after a dip in the run up to the March Budget, official figures revealed yesterday.
The average value of a property in the capital soared 5.1 per cent, the biggest monthly rise on record, to an average of £360,721. This “Spring surge” added £17,538 to the average value of a home in April, which is £584 a day.
The rise comes after London recorded its first year-on-year fall for thirty months on concern about the double dip recession and threatened punitive “mansion taxes” on higher value property. But yesterdays figures from the Land Registry show that London’s property market has quickly recovered its upward momentum, particularly in central areas. The average price of a home in Kensington & Chelsea passed the £1 million mark for the first time with a 3.6 per cent rise.
Agents said the scramble to buy after the two per cent extra stamp duty rate was announced by George Osborne, combined with a flood of enquries from panicked Eurozone buyers, may have contributed to the spike.
Charlie Bubear, of Savills’ Chelsea office said: “Around 50 per cent of our buyers this year been driven by eurozone fears, although this is currently accounting for around 60 to 70 per cent of inquiries. Buyers are seeking sanctuary for their money.”
The Chancellor increased the stamp duty on homes worth more than £2 million from 5 per cent to 7 per cent in the March budget, triggering a short lived frenzy of completions at the upper end of the market. A shortage of homes on the market and a sharp slowdown in the “conveyor belt” of middle class families moving out of London to the shires are also believed to have contributed.
The number of properties sold in London for over £1 million in February 2012 - the most recent month for which sales volumes are available - rose by 8 per cent to 322 from 297 in February 2011.
The most expensive property registered in Britain during the month was sold for £55 million in central London, while the cheapest, in Colne Lancashire, fetched £8000.
For England and Wales as a whole prices dropped 0.3 per cent in the month to an average of £160,417, just 44 per cent of the London average.
If you are looking for property in London, please contact prime property experts Chartwell Estates on 0207 409 0533 and www.www.chartwellestates.co.uk
