Price falls that have hit London's most expensive property for years have slowed and rippled out to high-end family homes in the south-west of the capital, according to Savills. The value of central London's 'prime' property, located in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, has been falling for three years, down 15pc since September 2014. Savills said that fall, sparked largely by a hike in stamp duty on homes worth more than £1m, appears to have bottomed out. By contrast, increasingly fragile buyer sentiment due to uncertainty over Brexit and high property prices mean that these falls are accelerating in outer zones. While prices of expensive property in the centre of the capital fell by 4pc last year, they sank by an average of 4.2pc in south-west London, in areas such as Barnes, Wandsworth and Clapham. This is the first time since June 2012 that such price falls in south-west London have outpaced those in the centre.
British property company Savills has predicted that the slump in Wandsworth's prime housing market has slowed, but says a return to growth will be slow. Values of the most expensive homes in Westminster have fallen by 15% over the last three years, while in areas such as London and Clapham, the decrease has been 7.3%. Savills predict it will be two years before prices start to rise again, due to uncertainty over Brexit, added to the previous effect of a stamp duty increase on properties over £1m ($1.4m).