For most Londoners, talk of buying a house in the capital is greeted with snorts of laughter and tears of despair. London is becoming increasingly unaffordable, with twenty- and thirty-somethings fleeing London in search of a cheaper life elsewhere.
But there’s a tiny ray of hope for the rest of us, with the news that London’s house prices will fall in 2017. No prizes for guessing what’s to blame for the slump, as Howard Archer, chief economist for IHS Markit explains:
‘We expect that consumer uncertainty will mount particularly once the UK formally launches divorce proceedings from the EU by triggering Article 50 (the government is still aiming for an end-March move) and difficult negotiations increasingly come to the forefront’.
Meanwhile, estate agents Savills predict that house prices won’t rise again until 2019. We’d crack open the cava if it wasn’t for the fact that in London’s cheapest borough, Barking and Dagenham, you’d still need 9.7 times the median income to even think about buying. Fingers crossed for a big win on the EuroMillions, then.
Photo: Alberto Baggio/Flickr