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Cash buyers dominate West End property market

Tuesday, 6 December 2011 11:58 AM

Estate agent LDG has seen a big increase in the number of cash buyers interested in property in the West End of London.

Cash buyers made up 64 per cent of its customers in 2010/11 compared to 44 per cent in 2009/10. And its average sale price also rose significantly from £839,000 to £1.2 million.

The firm believes the trend is due to buyers who would usually look in the £350,000 to £750,000 price bracket finding mortgages harder to come by.

Banks are restricting lending to buy-to-let investors and first-time buyers whereas wealthy purchasers are still keen to buy prime residential flats and houses.

The number of UK-based purchasers increased from 48 per cent to 70 per cent and the number of EU purchasers rose from 11 to 17 per cent as buyers looked to invest in UK property. However, the number of non-EU purchasers fell from 40 to 13 per cent, perhaps reflecting lower availability of new-build stock.

Laurence Glynne, Partner at LDG, said: "The year ahead will continue to reflect the shortage of available flats and houses for sale, and as such, we expect prices to continue to steadily increase.

"We also anticipate an influx of purchasers from Europe, the Far East and others continents based on the strength of the London property market."

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