Property industry calls for tax cuts to lift London market

London

THE fizz has gone out of the London real estate bubble and the property industry is calling for a reduction in stamp duties to lift activity and prices.

According to LonRes, a property data company, Savills, Knight Frank and other agents, prime London residential transactions have slumped and on average prices are down by 5 to 10 per cent in the past twelve months and by 10 to 15 per cent since the market peaked. Some of the very high priced properties of £5 million (S$8.76 million) or more have fallen by an even greater percentage from peak 2014 valuations, according to anecdotal reports of sellers and agents.

PwC estimated in a report that the number of houses and apartments that were sold in the £1.5 million to £2 million range fell from 2,380 in the nine months to November 2015 to only 1,426 in the same period in 2016. Activity picked up slightly…