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London's lavishly high home prices take a Brexit hit

After the vote to leave the EU, prime central London property prices dropped 1.5% in July - marking the steepest fall since October 2009, according to Knight Frank

Published Sun, Aug 14, 2016 · 09:50 PM
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MONEYED newcomers drove London real estate prices to dizzying heights, turning even the most Dickensian hovel into a trophy property. But Britain's bid to break with Europe may finally be cooling the most expensive big-city housing market in the West.

This is still the land of the US$200 million condo, with prime central London real estate forming the foundation of British wealth. But a flood of price drops and cancelled contracts is coursing through London's streets, hitting even the immaculate enclaves of celebrities and oligarchs and becoming the most tangible sign yet of economic trouble in the aftermath of Britain's vote to exit the European Union, or "Brexit".

The market softness speaks, economists say, to longer-term fears: that tougher immigration rules may make it harder for outsiders to live and work in one of the world's most globalised cities; that the British pound - which has taken a beating - may continue to drop; that high-paying jobs may start slipping away from a financial capital more disconnected fro…

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