Interest in London residential property from buyers in the United States and India has surged over the last three years, according a new analysis of the market. The US has been the most active foreign country for the past three years by a considerable margin, according to London estate agent Chestertons, with visits to its website up 85% between January and March 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. It also reports growing interest in the London property market from India, with web traffic up by 94% during the same period. While London has always been a magnet for foreign investment, the Brexit stalemate has seen interest from most European Union countries in the first quarter of 2019 wane compared to last year, most notably from France with a fall of 16%, while interest from Spain and Denmark is down 13.8% and from Austria down 34%. However, US interest has risen from 3.3% of Chestertons’ total website traffic in 2017 to 10% in 2019. The firms says that there is little doubt that this has been driven by the weakening of sterling against the US dollar over the past couple of years. Indeed, the average sterling/dollar exchange rate in the first quarter of 2019 was 6.4% lower than in the first quarter of 2018 and is 24% below the last peak, when it touched 1.72 in July 2014. In addition, India’s growing economy, expanding middle class and favourable currency exchange rates, also appear to be encouraging more Indian investors to consider purchasing property in London. In the first quarter of 2019, Chestertons’ web traffic from India surged by 94% compared to the first three months of 2018, although still only represents 1.3% of the total website visits for that period. Although the pound has broadly risen against the Rupee since April 2017, it is nonetheless still 13.5% below its August 2015 peak. Moreover, a lot of Indian buyers transact in US dollars. ‘There has been a noticeable increase in interest in London property from the US and India, mainly thanks to the weakness of the pound, coupled with the fact that prices have come down by as much as 20% since the peak, therefore making London property a very attractive investment opportunity,’ said Guy Gittins, managing director of Chestertons. ‘Our Mayfair, Hyde Park and Canary Wharf, have seen an increase in enquiries from Indian buyers, while our Hyde Park and Westminster offices have seen some increase in enquiries from US buyers,’ he explained. ‘A common theme among both nationalities that we are dealing with is that they are taking a longer-term view about London and the UK. Brexit is generally regarded as a shorter term blip which will not detract to any significant degree from London’s pedigree as a world city and a safe haven,’ he added.
An drop in prices of up to one-fifth and a weak pound against the dollar have prompted a "noticeable increase" in US and Indian investors looking to buy US property, according to estate agents Chestertons . It said the same period traffic from the US to its website was up 94% Brexit , while Indian visitors to the site had risen 94% in Q1 2019 .