70% of London property now owned by foreigners

And the average property in London is 1.6 million pounds.

Puts Sydney and Melbourne to shame.

 

Hello, is this from an article?

 

BBC British Property Boom

 

This is not surprising. The tier 1s had a big boom 2012-2015 driven a lot by foeign money especially the BRIC countries.

 

Sorry the average price in London is nothing like 1.6 million pounds. Maybe you are quoting central London or Mayfair or something. It is more like 400-500K. Actually I think London and Sydney are very comparable, it is not that much more to buy in London than Sydney, they are both similarly overpriced. I bought a property in Zone 2 London for 100K, but sold it for 240. Should have held onto that one, oh well.

 

Do you have a link?

70% seems high. Where did all the londoners go when they sold up?

I dont think the average is £1.6M but i do think property is less affordable in london than sydney. Wages are a bit lower than here, houses are smaller, there are more apartments, so its hard to compare average property prices to oz.

I think foreign investment in london has definitely pushed up prices at the top, which has trickled competition down. Lots of russian oligarchs apparently.

 

"With the average property price in London now £531,000, unless you earn way above the national average salary, you have precious little hope of being in a position to buy,"

UK house prices up 6.1%, says ONS - BBC News

 

70% of London property is not owned by foreigners. The actual story goes like this: 70% of all new build in central London bought by foreigners.

Edit: Stopped yelling

 

No need to yell.

 

Lets not let silly things like facts get in the way of xenophobic hysteria articles

 

I have replayed the episode and yes that is one of the facts that they clearly state.

Also no mention of the Russians, just blaming overseas buyers from Asia who surprisingly two had very clipped English accents.

Similar line to what is being regurgitated here in Australia. First home buyers can never afford the deposit to buy their own property unless mum and dad cough it up. People want a three bedroom bungalow on land but can only afford a 2 bedroom council flat in the area that they want to live in and that is a national disgrace.

 

You sound unconvinced about housing affordability in london. My sister is a young police officer with the Met. With overtime i think she makes about £40k which is a decent wage in london. She wants to stop renting and buy a place but there is literally nothing she can afford. She works in wandsworth. If you can find a habitable one bedroom flat, id like to see it.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk

In melbourne she would have lots of options.

 

How is it xenophobic?

xenophobic - Google Search

All I read in that post was; an article stating that a certain percent of property was bought by foreigners.

Is this the standard of this forum now; the mere mention of anyone or anything foreign is a racist, xenophobic slur?

 

Its your typical OMG OUR COUNTY IS BEING BOUGHT UP BY FOREIGNERS media beat up, the same as was bandied about during sydney boom when it was OMG THE CHINESE INVESTORS for anyone who looked asian and bought a house.

 

the Russians have taken London by storm- especially the prestige stuff in London. Just like the Chinese have dominated the prestige in Sydney.
A huge amount of money was made in Russia during the commodities boom esp oil and gas and went into select pockets ( no surprise)- and they preferred to get it out to London and other tier 1s, just like the other BRICs. the chinese preferred sydney and mel, the indians preferred singapore/kl, the brazillians preferred miami and north America...and the russians london and europe.
whatever the case wherever you invest, it had to be out of the country of origin as you can then declare less revenue and tax liability to the home govt.
Go figure...and in a lot of those countries, a 20 under the table and well placed connections would ensure safe passage of capital. Those govts are tightening up on it thesedays, but still numerous ..lets just say 'gaps', exist.

As I mentioned, they are taking some action, however the numbers , right or wrong, are staggering and show the extent of the problem:
BRICS countries lead global capital flight: report

 

I lived in London up until December 2014. The property market is completely mad.

I arrived in September or October 2010, and in the time I was there were one or two recessions, a major series of riots, and the GFC hit hard because of the disproportionate size of the financial sector. Despite that prices rose by 40% or more.

Foreigners own 70% of the city, but it does sound like the percentage of new builds that they buy. Much like Melbourne, this market is producing properties that suit investors, rather than locals, and there was a bit of a scandal over developments being marketed overseas before Londoners got a look in.

The trouble is that new supply is being bought up, and frequently kept empty, and so doesn't meet the demand that's there, and no-one in a normal job can afford it. In fact, it's at the point where it's completely unaffordable to rent. (A decent one bedroom flat is $3000 to $3500 per month.)

I don't know how it's going to end. Probably badly. There's a significant outflow of people in their thirties and forties because of the unaffordability of housing, particularly when children are involved.

 

Probably it will be like sydney ie small decline then flat for a long time till the next cycle. I wouldnt be surprised if most of the tier 1s in oecd countries follow this. Although not proven yet in sydney. .
The next 5 years will be about growth in the secondary markets worldwide imo...most tier 1s have had their spectacular run 2012-2015. I predixt you will see similar markkwt dynamics at play eg the londoners will cash in their equity gains or use it to invest in tier 2s like manchester etc...just like the sydneysiders are doing in brisbane atm.
The masses and their wealth in the emerging nations espwciqlly the brics is the big x factor. This is more of an x factor given that their economies are feeling the pinch of lower growth rates, sharemarkwt declines, commodity price falls etc...will they still seek tier 1s and its lofty prices ? Or seek more tier 2s that are affirdable? No one knows for sure, however i think they will seek more value plays . Some will still see that as tier 1s...but a growung number will see that as tier 2s.

 

I lived in Wandsworth for 6 years and know the police station where your sister would work, in fact I could see the station from our window.

I spent my time in London buying, renovating flats and renting them out and still own them, haven't sold them yet. I have three flats in Wandsworth that I rent out and one of them is a one bed flat in a tower block that is ex council. It rents for £850 pcm and is a big one bedder in a fantastic location surrounded by loads of new builds with gentrification in full swing in the area since I left. As the flat is in a tower block no bank will lend on it so if I was to sell it I could only sell to cash buyers. To me this makes little sense. The cheaper, high rise ex council flats are what banks should be lending money on to allow people like your sister to get a foothold on the property ladder. The irony is that the only buyers that could afford to buy my flat are not the buyers that would not want to buy it.

London is a very interesting market. It's not as easy to say that the foreigners (like me...) are the reason why prices have gone crazy. It's one of many reasons.

 

yes, correct...same in places like sydney. Foreigners are certainly not the sole ( nor main) reason why prices have gone up. They are one of the factors though.

 

Agree, if something is a factor in price rises (or falls) it wouldn't make sense to exclude from consideration. Whether the buyers are from China, Sweden or Vanuatu, it has to be assessed.

It is the undersupply of accommodation that is the main cause of the shortage