London deals fall through and thousands of asking prices cut – claim

Thousands of asking prices across London have been slashed since the Brexit vote and hundreds of deals have fallen through, the Evening Standard has claimed.

But outside London, the picture seems completely different. Agents belonging to the Relocation Network, with over 700 offices nationwide, have painted a “consistently calm picture” of “business as usual”.

The Standard’s story comes up with examples of big price cuts, including a first-floor apartment in Belsize Park, put on the market in May at £1.5m but cut to £1.05m on the day the referendum outcome was made clear.

Another flat, in Whitechapel, has had its price cut from £1.1m to £720,000.

A house in Streatham that was listed at an initial £1.3m is now £850,000.

According to the Standard, an analysis of 13,000 homes listed on Zoopla suggests that one in six have had a price cut since the Leave vote.

The story quotes Henry Pryor as saying: “I do not believe that a whole load of foreigners are going to come to the rescue of the market having seen the currency change.

“I have three buyers, two from Italy and one from Brazil, who are really worried about the welcome they are going to get when they touch down at Heathrow.

“They have seen some of the images of racism since the vote and they are saying ‘Is this the Britain we want to buy into?’”

The paper also claims that “hundreds” of agreed deals in London have fallen through following the Brexit vote.

Separately, the Financial Times has reported that over £650m worth of commercial property deals in the City of London have collapsed since the vote.

Outside London, Simon Bradbury, of Thomas Morris in St Ives, Huntingdon, says that “surprisingly little” has changed.

In a blog on our Arena section, he reports an email exchange between members of the Relocation Agent Network which “painted a consistently calm picture”.

Agents in RAN report very few fall-throughs, with Malcolm Prescott, managing director of 15-branch Webbers in the west country, reporting: “I am only aware of two sales falling through where clients claim that the Brexit decision was the reason! On the other side we have tied up sales in the main over 400K where sellers have taken sensible offers (not under-sold) rather than hold out for a higher figure.”

Another agent, Chris Willey of Wilsons in Taunton, told EYE he had not had a single fall-through, but that “most sellers have, in discussion with us, carefully reviewed their asking prices”.

He said this had resulted in more sales being agreed, and increased viewings. He said: “Our take is that there has been no immediate fall in actual sales or sales falling through, more a clear need for realistic pricing.”

Buying agent Edward Heaton was quoted in the Standard story, which appears to have omitted some of what he said in a press release.

The release, also received by EYE, said: “So far it has been business as usual, although of course, this might be the calm before the storm.

“Having spoken to most of the main selling agents in both London and the country, they are not reporting any significant change in sentiment and it has had virtually no effect on transactions.”

However, his prediction that asking prices would fall heavily on new developments in London was used by the Standard.

A small one bedroom apartment at Nine Elms, London,  that started with an asking price of £910,000 is now being offered at £799,000.

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7 Comments

  1. Chri Wood

    The total value of price reductions post Brexit vote across West Cornwall, are over £500,000 down (35%) on the same period last year. It seems that owners and agents are currently confident that the widely predicted financial and property apocalypse may be rather premature.

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    1. Bless You

      Wishful thinking i am afraid..this is the calm before storm.

      Media keeping quiet cos they backed brexit.

      In 1 month the vaccum will explode into political fighting, poor figures, negative press..then recession…

      hold on tight…

       

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      1. PeeWee

        Bless You & Pardon You!   To what news channels do you subscribe?  The media have done nothing for Brexit, you’d think it was a one horse race.

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  2. pambrose

    It is easy to see that such a shock to any system will inevitably result in short term uncertainty and are a gift for newspaper story writers.

    However.

    I’d like to see some year-on-year comparisons and some actual numbers of fall throughs that are due purely to the vote.

    Our experience just doesn’the bear this out and over 85% of our nearly 600 deals are in London, the majority being buyers.

    Let’s face it, everyone is in agreement that prices are high in London – if you were a buyer and were presented with such an early Christmas present of this uncertainty,  of COURSE you’d chip the price.

    Why wouldn’t you?

     

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  3. WGC

    Our company has Circa 900 proceeding Sales, is NOT in London and had less than 20 sales cancel in the week post Brexit. a few more than normal but that’s all.

    Of those several clients did site Brexit as their reason but staff felt that this was as often being used as a handy excuse as it was a genuine reason.

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  4. Typhoon

    Hang on folks. Who said those asking prices were correct in the first place?  maybe brevet has brought some sense to vendors and agents about “real” values.

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  5. femaleagent88

    I work in London and no deals have fallen through one tried to re-negotiate but there was another buyer who missed out and they snapped it up. The prices I have seen drop in London are on proeprties that where over valued in the first place and have sat on the market for 2 months doing nothing while people waited for the results, they have now come down to what they should have been when the damage has been done so should be lower so we will see more price dropping I am sure.

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