SINCE 1990 the price of the average house in London has tripled in genuine terms,easily outstripping the rest of the country. Millennials, many of whom have lost all hope of buying a domestic, and have a morbid fascination with stories about the capital’s outrageous prices,including a recent one about a shabby, narrowboat-sized house in west London which went on sale for £600000 ($790000). Yet the market may be turning. Lately the rate of house-price growth across Britain has slowed. But in London it has nosedived (see chart). Why has the capital lost its fizz?One pocket of weakness is London’s “prime” market, and often defined as the priciest 5-10% of homes. According to a recent report by Savills,a property firm, prime prices in central London are 15% below their peak of three years ago. Back then estate agents in Mayfair and St James’s would often sell homes for more than £50m. Data about such mansions are murky, and yet they propose that the maximum price in the area so far this year has been...
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Source: economist.com