Friday 15 June 2007

London houses more overpriced than Monte Carlo

London is now more expensive than Monte Carlo. That fact should start the alarm bells ringing and the red lights flashing; "warning, warning, overpriced, overvalued housing market ready to crash". How can a house in London, with its grim weather and lousy transport system be worth more than a similarly sized house overlooking the Mediterranean?

I am now convinced that the London housing market is one massive scam. Londoners are selling up their shoddy little terraced houses to foolish foreigners knowing that withing three years the market will be down 40 percent. Then, everyone that sold up and went off to Spain will come back and buy their original homes.

London property prices are rising at the fastest rate for more than 30 years, with many houses fetching more money per square foot than Monte Carlo, a study disclosed yesterday.The report provides further evidence of the twin-track property market, with prices slowing down across the country, except in London, where they continue to soar to astronomical levels.

The estate agency Knight Frank said that some properties in recent months have fetched £4,000 per square foot - making walk-in wardrobes in parts of Belgravia and Knightsbridge more expensive than three-bedroom houses in Scotland and the north of England.

The monthly report, which specialises in properties worth £5 million on average, shows that these top-end homes have increased in price at 33.3 per cent over the last 12 months.

This is the fastest rate of growth since March 1979 and means that many homeowners in Knightsbridge, Chelsea or Hampstead are earning more than £4,000 a day from their property alone. It is not just City traders spending their bonuses who are fuelling the boom. Russian oligarchs and international tycoons, with bottomless pockets, have started to outbid each other in key locations.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Then, everyone that sold up and went off to Spain will come back and buy their original homes."

Not if they put their money in Spanish real estate. There's a huge bubble down there, too.

Anonymous said...

Where did all the londoners go.

Anonymous said...

Monte Carlo and London - both key money laundering centres frequented by russian oligarchs.