Indians have risen to No. 2 position when it comes to inking realty deals in London. Yes, you heard it right! Indians are the second largest buyers of property in the prime central London property market. The reason behind this big move by Indians? The uncertainty that followed Brexit and Donald Trump’s election as US President.
Indian participation amounted to 22 percent of all real estate transactions in prime central London between August 2016 and July 2017. “It has been noted recently that there has been an upturn in Indian buyers, making up about a fifth of all buyers at nearly 4 billion pounds out of a total 18 billion pounds. In fact, Indian UK property investments accounted for only 5 percent of sales in central London five years ago in 2012. By 2017, that figure had jumped to 22 percent”, Faisal Durrani, property consultancy Cluttons’ partner said.
Dollar-denominated deals offer an incentive too for adding the London property portfolio. “For Indian buyers with holdings in US dollars, or any country’s buyer with dollar holdings, the advantage is that it is 30 per cent cheaper today than it was 10 years ago. So, there is a very strong incentive to purchase London residential today,” said Durrani. He made it clear that it is due to the pound’s weakness and constant fluctuation in the Foreign Exchange market that is cementing this trend. Earlier in August this year, a Livemint report stated that Indians were also found to be spending more per house in Central London. They accounted for one-third of the total spend, with an average purchase price of 1.77 million pounds, slightly higher than the market average of 1.6 million pounds.
