Londoners cashing out, selling houses in city

[LONDON] For equity-derivatives broker Andrew Adamson, it was a trade too good to pass up.

In October, he was offered £1,000 (US$2,100) per square foot for his London townhouse. Other homes in the area were going for about 30 per cent less. Mr Adamson accepted it immediately.

London's housing market, having outperformed the rest of the UK with price gains of more than 50 per cent in five years, is cooling as owners such as Mr Adamson cash out. They're leaving the city for less costly suburban and country homes because they expect mortgage rates to rise and new lending rules to damp prices. London estate agents had the largest increase in instructions to sell homes in Britain in June and the biggest drop in people seeking to buy them, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).