London house prices surged to a new record in June as homebuyers rushed to beat stamp duty holiday deadline

More than £30,000 has been added to the average price of a property in the capital in just 12 months.
Jason Hawkes

The scramble to beat the first stamp duty holiday deadline sent London house prices soaring to a new record high in June.

The average cost of a home in the capital rose 2.5 per cent in the month to £510,299, according to latest figures from the Land Registry.

The annual rate of increase was 6.3 per cent, the fastest since October 2016, adding more than £30,000 to the average price of a property in just 12 months.

However, London’s annual rise was the lowest of any region in the country with prices rising by 13.2 per cent across the UK as a whole.

The steepest increases in the capital were in cheaper outer boroughs with prices in Harrow soaring 16.7 per cent, Bromley rising by 14.4 per cent, Enfield by 11.5 per cent and Hounslow by 10.2 per cent.

Property commentators said that the London market had remained buoyant through the summer despite the partial removal of the stamp duty perk on July 1, when the threshold for paying the tax was reduced from £500,000 to £250,000.

The London market is also set to be turbocharged by the return of high spending foreign investors in the Autumn after an absence of a year and a half due to travel restrictions.

Nicky Stevenson, managing director at estate agent group Fine & Country, said: “In London where growth has been more modest, agents are now bracing themselves for a return to full-throttle as investors from the Gulf return to the market with the UAE now on our amber list.

“A tremendous buzz is building in the capital and viewings from overseas investors are already beginning to soar with many wondering if we will witness the same double digit growth in London that has already been recorded in other areas of the country.

“While we expect things to steady later in the year, there is nothing in this data to suggest the brakes will be applied heavily to what has become a run-away market.”

Lucy Pendleton of London estate agents James Pendleton, said: “London remains the dark horse of the property market. It’s much harder to predict where it will go over the remainder of the year, though demand is certainly broadening out. The rental market is once again on fire, demand is spreading to a greater range of property types as the race for space fades and even the supercars are back in Knightsbridge.

“The capital could well turn the tables on the rest of the country over the next 12 months.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in