Over a hundred potential investors attended our first international investment seminar at Lloyds TSB’s headquarters in the heart of London last night. Three guest speakers discussed the benefits of investing in renewable energies, the state of the economy, and the potential of central London’s property portfolio. 

Despite a double-dip recession and a supposedly unsustainable rise in prices, the property market has remained consistent through these hard economic times. Growth is forecast over the next four years with the lowest predicted rate at 7% in Scotland, while a figure of 22% is predicted for London’s highly desirable central neighbourhoods by 2016.

Triangle Property Group 

“I think London, in particular, is fuelled by the international investments it attracts and therefore in the next four or five years we will see sustained growth, predominantly in central London,” explained Triangle’s Property Sales Director, Grant Westall-Reece.

The compelling case for investment in these areas was backed up by impressive statistics that cement London’s position as one of the most attractive city’s on the planet.

·      40,000 listed buildings and over 150 ancient monuments

·      Over 200 museums

·      A world leader in education. Four London universities rank in the world’s top 20 (UCL, Imperial, Kings College London and London School of Economics)

·      More international visitors than any city in the world – 15 million each year

·      Annual retail sales of £64.2bn, a world-class retail destination

London is, of course, the beating heart of the world’s finance industry, alongside New York City, and has the largest city GDP in Europe. England’s capital is home to the headquarters of more than 100 of Europe’s 500 largest companies, a third of global foreign exchange takes place here daily, and the vast majority of the 481 foreign banks operating in the United Kingdom are based in London. This compares to 287 in the whole of the US, 242 in Germany and 92 in Japan.

“There will be hotspots, in terms of emerging markets (areas), or the golden postcodes as we call them,” continues Grant Westall-Reece. “There’s a constant demand and unlimited supply.”

Housing shortfall

Recent figures highlight the existing shortfalls in housing supply in London and the shortfalls in housing delivery are likely to be exacerbated in the next five years due to the constraints of developing into a low transaction market.

London Property Prices

London house prices have climbed 6.3% over the past year – compared to 1.8% in the rest of the country – and new sellers added to their asking prices by more than £8,000 in October; the biggest jump seen in eight months. The global flow of money into prime Central London dwellings has continued to strengthen against the wider backdrop of sporadic and timid equity markets and prices are now far above the level they reached at the height of the bull cycle in 2007, prior to the crash.

Key stats

·      Prime Central London property prices reached a new high in August with values almost higher than 50% than in March 2009

·      The central London property market retained its dominance in August, with a 0.5% increase in average prices taking the value of prime property to a new record high. The median price is now £3.5m

·      Overseas Buyers accounted for 58% of buyers in the first half of 2012

Grant Westall-Reece 

Prime London property with Triangle and Compare The Financial Markets

There’s never been a better time to invest in central London property.

“CTFM is a fantastic conduit for Triangle for attracting investors who are searching for advice and experts in the relevant fields,” concludes Grant. “It’s an excellent collaboration.”

Talk to the experts at Compare The Financial Markets.

 By Dan Tester