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The rental market continues to be extremely busy.  We have had an increasing amount of enquiries from people who are renting rather than buying at the moment, and also from tenants who feel that they are currently overpaying and are looking for a ‘deal’.  The top end of the market remains extremely strong and good properties are letting quickly. 

Some major American banks appear to be bringing more people into London, as do ENI and other oil companies, so all the doom and gloom in the Press is not true in central London. 

We are also getting a lot of enquiries from the leading US banks for prime rental properties for their key directors – real top end homes in Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea with rents between £5,000 and £10,000 per week.  This is unusual.  These ‘big hitters’ are being sent to London, being so strategically placed for dealing with the whole of Europe, and with no language issues, in place of their more junior colleagues, and subsequently there is a shortage of tenants for the middle range properties – with rents from £400 to £1,000 per week. 

The precariousness of the City is also sending shudders through some areas of the central London sales market, particularly in relation to houses.  International buyers who previously came into the market with 90% mortgages on their properties, buying family houses in prime locations, with the expectation that these loans would be paid off with a few good bonus payments, have dried up.  We are still selling good family homes at or in excess of their asking price, but buyers are much more discerning, prices really have to be more realistic and sales are harder to find. 

There is now a real discrepancy between the flats and houses market in London.  International buyers wanting a pied a terre in the capital who, traditionally, would have looked at both large flats and two/three storey houses, are now opting for the plush converted lateral flat, in a portered block.  For example, we had 16 viewings of a beautiful flat in Burton Court within days of its coming onto the market recently, and have since agreed a sale in excess of the asking price.  The Chelsea market seems to be booming as we went to sealed bids on a house in Sprimont Place and agreed a sale of a house in Elystan Place recently.