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London house price growth slows as affordability pressures bite


03-27-2016

 

A pedestrian reads property information leaflets displayed in the window of Winkworth's estate agent's in the Kennington district of London, U.K., on Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. London home sellers cut asking prices by the most in more than six years this month, adding to signs that the property market in the U.K. capital is coming off the boil. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

©Bloomberg

House price growth in London has started to slow as “affordability pressures” curb demand.

Data from Hometrack, the property analysis company, shows growth moderated in the three months to February in 43 of the 46 local authorities in the region.

Price inflation slowed in Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol too — all are cities that have experienced double-digit price increases over the past year.

“Slower growth is inevitable in these markets as affordability pressures constrain demand,” Hometrack said in a research note.

It predicted the trend will continue: “We expect growth in London to slow in the face of more price-sensitive demand and where the implications of a Brexit vote and the impact of policies targeted at investors will have the greatest impact over 2016.”

In more than half of London’s postcodes, the average property now costs more than half a million pounds. The average London home costs nine times the median income for a full-time worker.

PwC predicted last month that London would be transformed from a city of homeowners to a city of renters within a generation. In 2000 about 60 per cent of Londoners owned their own homes, but PwC forecast this could fall to 40 per cent by 2025.

In contrast to the slowing growth in London, Cambridge, Oxford and Bristol, house prices are accelerating in other major cities.

Hometrack reported a “notable and unseasonal acceleration” in the three months to February, which it attributed in part to a temporary bump as people rushed to beat the new stamp duty increase for second homes, which begins in April.

Portsmouth, Nottingham and Birmingham recorded their highest rates of annual price growth for more than 10 years, at 9.2, 7.8 and 7 per cent respectively. Leeds and Glasgow saw the highest growth rates for more than eight years.

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