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House prices in London's luxury postcodes stall on Brexit fears

The price of homes in 47 of London’s 272 postcode areas has fallen in the last quarter, with the most pronounced drops in some of the capital’s most luxurious neighbourhoods.

In the data, released by estate agents Stirling Ackroyd, some of London’s most ‘prime’ areas all saw significant declines in average property values, with Kensington High Street seeing the biggest drop of 11.8%, to £1.8m.

Elsewhere, the likes of Notting Hill (down 10% at £1.5m), Hampstead (down 9.2% to just over £1m) and South Kensington (down 5.8% to £1.9m) also suffered marked drops as a range of economic worries gives international investors the jitters.

Andrew Bridges, managing director of Stirling Ackroyd, believes a combination of a low global oil price, China’s economic slowdown, stamp duty reform and ‘international fears of Brexit’ have all played a part in pushing down house prices in London’s poshest postcodes.

He said: “Luxury no longer means profit – or at least you can no longer presume so. London’s hugely diverse property market is undergoing a serious readjustment, with the traditional old heart of ‘prime’ London under pressure from many fronts.”

However, the figures also show that, bucking the downward trend in the more well-heeled areas of the capital, other neighbourhoods saw prices rise.

In fact, taking out the data for London’s prime spots revealed an overall 2% rise in city’s house prices in the last quarter and an 8.2% rise year-on-year, settling at an average of £533,000.

Andrew added: “Yet for most of London’s communities, these factors affecting luxury buyers are less important. There are still too few new homes coming onto the majority of the market compared to demand from a growing population – and the majority of the London market is still in tune with, and restrained, by those fundamentals.

“Anyone who thinks that London property is synonymous with international jet setters is only looking at a very small part of what London has to offer.”

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